Weather on the north coast of central NSW has eased and water levels are falling, but for some, the impacts of this week’s floods will be felt for months.
Key points:
- A Croki rancher says 90% of his farm is underwater
- Taree recorded its highest daily rainfall in 140 years
- Residents in the lowlands of Tuncurry have returned home
Taree received a record rainfall: 305 millimeters fell in 24 hours until 9 a.m. Thursday.
Nearby low-lying municipalities, including the village of Croki, were flooded and some roads and pastures were submerged as residents faced their third flood in 12 months.
Croki dairy farmer Craig Emerton said 90 percent of his farm was still under water and had barely managed to plant his winter food crop.
“We haven’t been able to use our paddocks properly since February of this year. We’ve been under this continuous humid climate,” he said.
“We were back in our plantation for six weeks and finally finished our planting last week. Now everything has been left under water … so it will leave us with a big food gap.
“I’m exhausted … right now it’s really a guessing game about what we’re going to do to feed ourselves for the next three months.”
Emerton says it was the heaviest rain he had seen in a two-day period in his farm’s 33-year operation. (ABC Mid North Coast: Madeleine Cross)
The farm has belonged to Mr. Emerton’s family since 1856. He has run it for more than three decades and planned to pass it on to his daughter.
Now, however, he is not so sure
“We are trying to work through an agrarian succession plan, but we continue to throw those curved balls over time,” he said.
“Right now we wouldn’t like to hand it over to them … because it would just destroy them for working under it.”
Evacuated residents return home
There was an evacuation order for the lowlands of Tuncurry and residents have now returned home. (ABC Mid North Coast: Keely Johnson)
Further south, residents in the lower Tuncurry areas have returned home after being forced to evacuate during the peak of the flood.
“It’s a little smelly and there’s a lot of garbage and brown water,” resident Craig Murray said.
David Hardaker, the local Salvation Army emergency services coordinator, helped coordinate operations at the Tuncurry evacuation center and said it had been a very stressful day.
“We’ve had so much rain in such a short time that the rivers, the streams, the streets were just flowing with water. It was pretty scary,” he said.
“There were a lot of sudden floods and people got stuck in vehicles. It was full.”
Lakeside Caravan Park in Forster during this week’s floods. (ABC Mid North Coast: Keely Johnson)
Find more local news
Posted 5 hours, 5 hours ago, Friday, July 8, 2022 at 7:11 AM, updated 5 hours, 5 hours ago, Friday, July 8, 2022 at 7:14 AM