“Most of my orchids were submerged for nearly 14 days in the flood and hundreds of course died. I’ve still got some that I’ve resurrected and some have been given to me, Amazingly some orchids have survived being under water for a fortnight and sending out tiny little shoots and I think good on you! Survival!
During the day of the 28th February I had some cattle agisted out here on the paddock. My neighbour who owned the steers came to take them away. He said the paddock will go under but your house will be ok. He said, I’ve lived here for 70 years and your house will be fine. As we all know now the flood was 10 times worse than anybody ever imagined. I took notice of what that man said even though my daughter in QLD said, I think you better get out Dad.
I had my tea and went to bed and the water was creeping up the walls of the greenhouse but I wasn’t worried about it reaching the house. I woke up and my bed was sopping wet. It was in the house, the carpets were soaked. I found a foam mattress and put it on my dining table to sleep on. At 2.30 in the morning I got a call from the SES saying we’ve had a call to rescue you but they said, We’re not going to send anybody out, it’s too dangerous. It was pitch black and no power. They said, we will come in the morning when it’s daylight. By the morning it would have been well over my head. I’m 85 years old.
My neighbour who has now left Woodburn because their house moved on its foundations, told me that there was 2 fellas in a boat that were coming to get me in an hour as they had others to pick up first. I waded around and packed up my wallet, tablets, some pants, my camera, all in the dark, and waited for the guys to come and find me. It was pitch black, no street lights so how they found my place I don’t know. They finally turned up and Derek got out of the boat and into the house to help me. It took 2 of us to push the hallway door open against the current. I hate to think what would have happened if I had left the house to swim up onto my roof.
Those fellas were wonderful. Their names are Derek and Marcus, I was the 40th person they had rescued. They took me up to the school which the school Principal had opened for an evacuation centre and I admire him greatly. There were hundreds of people there and we stayed for 2 or 3 hours. I didn’t have any bedding with me. Some neighbours offered to take me to a friends in Evans Head who had a home above flood. There were private boats coming and going the whole time. That’s why they are called the Tinnie Heroes. They provided their own fuel, their own time and risked their lives to save so many people. No one in Woodburn died. We hopped on a boat and went right over the new motorway with the outboard down at full pelt all the way to Evans Head and didn’t touch anything. The water was well above the new motorway. As the road emerged in Evans Head we were picked up by a bus provided by the mid Richmond Neighbourhood Centre and they took us into town. We had a coffee at the RSL and they offered us clothes. We set off and walked across the bridge with our bags on our backs and we stayed at Heathers house and I’m still so grateful to that lady.
A few days later we still couldn’t come back to Woodburn and when we eventually could everything’s turned over, the foods fallen out of the fridge, everything stinks and is thick with mud, the carpets are rotten and the walls are sodden. Every single thing got thrown out. I lost the lot. Friends and family came and helped and did an enormous clean up. We salvaged some linen, crockery and cutlery that we washed a few times. We took all the gyprock off the walls and waited a month for the studs to dry.
I’m not going to stay here. Unless the State Government were to build a levee around Woodburn which would cost millions and take years to build. My plan is to wait for buyback which I am eligible for but it could be months before I get money. We have 3 or 4 people left in this street and the rest have gone. I’m a member of the local flood action group and I wrote last night to the campaign director of the Liberal party of NSW saying if Dom Perrottet wants to be elected up in this area he better get his a#*e into gear because nothing’s happening. It’s too slow. I realise it’s a massive job but they didn’t form the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation until July 1st which was 4 months after the flood. Why not do it 4 days after? When they say to us, We understand your frustration. I say, you recognise our frustration because you can see it in our faces but you don’t have any understanding. Who in government is living like this? and I’m one of the lucky ones. So many people are still in tents and caravans.
Susanna Freymark got a grant to make a film on the impact of the flood. She asked me to be in it and I said of course. She came with her camera operator Jimmy Malecki and she brought Marcus and Derek who fished me out of the flood. The film is called Tinnie Heroes and is being screened around the Northern Rivers. (see link)
https://indynr.com/where-to-see-the-tinnie-heroes-film/
