Flood

Bernice Shepherd. For many of us, getting into the garden is a healing and grounding activity, a balm for the soul. But after devastating floods and relentless wet weather, what was once a beautiful sanctuary or productive food garden has become a muddy, stinky quagmire, no good for growing anything.

The Tweed’s first flood-free industrial land swap project is one step closer to fruition with construction works planned to begin at South Murwillumbah in August. The innovative plan will see eligible business landowners swap their flood prone land with Council owned, flood free land at Industry Central, located in Lundberg Drive, South Murwillumbah.

Three state of the art High Clearance Vehicles are now in permanent operation for the NSW State Emergency Service (SES), expanding flood rescue capability by helping volunteers get to hard to reach places. The vehicles, known as Unimogs, have been handed over to the SES by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) after being used on deployment in military operations.

John O'Donnell. After a walk along the Wilson River and Leycester Creek near their junction at Lismore, I called into the Winsome Hotel, thinking there might be a drink on hand, as it was close to lunchtime and there was no signage on the hotel indicating any changes in management.   No luck with any drinks, but I met Mieke Bell and she generously donated her time showing my wife and I what was happening on the ground floor after the floods.

The need for a new model for emergency management was clear after the floods in late February-March. And Richmond Valley Council hasn’t pulled any punches in its 18-page submission to the NSW Flood Inquiry. Richmond Valley has endured eight natural disasters in three years including fire, flood and drought.

Rodney Stevens. Residents of the 2464 postcode have sent a strong message to council through a petition calling for a moratorium  on land filling and further developments until a West Yamba Masterplan is developed. Launched  by environmental watchdog Valley Watch, the petition, which has garnered more than 1550 signatures from Yamba, Wooloweyah and Angourie, was presented to Clarence Valley Council Deputy Mayor Greg Clancy at Sunday's Yamba Markets.

The Narrandera Shire Council has endorsed its urban stormwater upgrade design for Narrandera and will place it on public exhibition until July 1 for the community to review the design and funding options and make submissions to Council ... Deputy General Manager (Infrastructure) Shane Wilson said the ultimate solution was $1,900,000 over the original pre-design estimate, which was never thought to be able to achieve such a substantial mitigation of the urbanised flooding.

Food and fibre production has been significantly and catastrophically impacted by rain events from March 2021, not only the flooding of 2022, resulting in significant hardship for town residents and businesses, and particularly the farming community ... NSW Farmers CEO Pete Arkle said the three tiers of government needed to work together with farming and community leaders to look at how to rebuild more resilient businesses, communities and regions.

Train tracks have been repaired after the floods in March and the XPT service can now run between Casino and Brisbane with buses no longer needed to replace trains.

Houses in Woodburn are selling for 30% less since the floods. Flood damaged homes are on the market but most listings don’t show the asking price ... It is a sensitive time with some residents deciding to sell and leave the area. Some simply can’t face another flood.

Geoff Helisma. Environmental watchdog, Valley Watch, first began predicting flooding of Yamba, as a result of developing West Yamba, in about 1995; on Sunday May 21, the group will present a more than 1,000-signature petition to the mayor, Ian Tiley (or his proxy), calling for a moratorium on further filling and development approvals on the Yamba floodplain. “Basically, the petition is demanding a well-designed master plan for West Yamba,” Valley Watch spokesperson Helen Tyas Tunggal said.

Kirstin Nicholson. There has been a buzz of activity amongst the Cohuna Lions Club’s Leos and Cubs. The Leos and Cubs, which comprise children aged 9 to 18, have been busy sewing items for children in flood-affected Lismore, New South Wales.

Four minutes. That was the time people had to tell their story at the flood inquiry in Lismore on May 3. It was clear from the emotion in people’s voices that telling their story wasn’t easy ... For two hours, people used their four minutes on the microphone to tell the auditorium audience and the convenors who sat on stage what the flood meant to them.

Lismore City Council has released a discussion paper that presents some broad brushstrokes for how Lismore can build back better ... Lismore City Council’s General Manager John Walker said now is the time for the community to have their say in how we plan for Lismore’s future.

Australia’s most trusted rural charity, Rural Aid, has helped Northern Rivers farmers turn rotting flood waste into a healthy by-product for soil improvement, through a partnership with Multikraft Probiotic Solutions. Multikraft’s MicroBalance product was last week sprayed by helicopter onto 33 farms in northern New South Wales.

Norco dairy farmers are to receive an immediate price increase of five cents a litre to support them in farm production after the floods. Norco Co-operative’s 281 members will receive the extra five cents a litre paid as a co-operative premium above the normal milk prices, taking the average price to 84c a litre.

Geoff Helisma. At yesterday’s Clarence Valley Council (CVC) meeting, councillors are likely to have allocated $1 million of  Category D  funding under the  Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements ... Staff advised councillors that the $700k allocated towards updating its flood plain documentation is “intended to ensure CVC has robust business plans and costings for future funding opportunities”.

Twenty-five of these homes, also called pods, were delivered to Wollongbar Sports Fields in Ballina Shire this weekend. Many more homes are expected to be delivered to Richmond Valley, Tweed, Byron and Lismore LGAs. Suitable sites in these areas are being discussed.

When Woodburn resident Melanie Connell heard that looters were taking what little people had left, she decided to do something about it ... Melanie wanted residents to know that if they see torches shining into  empty backyards, it is the community group looking out for them.

A re-elected Coalition Government will invest $38.1 million over the next three years to establish a National Veteran Volunteer Service program in partnership with Disaster Relief Australia (DRA).

It is clear from the extent of the NSW floods that many of the Con’s students, teachers and other musicians have lost their instruments, with most uninsured, and the Con has worked to quickly explore immediate support options for staff, students and the wider musical community impacted by this crisis. The Con itself has also lost much of its musical equipment and not all is fully covered by insurance.