S – “ We met almost 10 years ago in Ireland when we were both travelling. We found love. I’m originally from America and Rhys is from Wyrallah.”
R – “I grew up on a little beef property here.”
S – “We came here together and started Green Goddess Farm almost 9 years ago now which is at Findon Creek, about 25 minutes North West of Kyogle.
Our farm is 3 1/2 acres certified organic vegetables, flowers and an orchid. We grow everything and sell to Fundies, Santos, to Brisbane as well as some cafes and restaurants.”
R – “We were going so well until the big flood. A huge wall of water came down from a broken bridge. The bridge ended up acting as a dam and basically burst.”
S – “It was like a tsunami on our place. The whole bridge was getting jammed with logs, debris and foliage, big trees and then it let go. It had actually stopped raining and the water was starting to recede at our place. We were just about to go to bed thinking we’d escaped it as it was getting close and then the bridge broke.”
R – “It was 1.6 metres in our shed and the shed is at the highest point. It cleaned us out, all our machinery, everything including 2 walk behind tractors, our ride on lawn mower, chain saw, whipper snipper, just everything.”
S – “We had finally put in the most amazing irrigation system for our fields and it all washed away.”
R – “Our scales and all the stuff we need for our markets is gone. $2000 of fruit fly netting gone.”
S – “We had just started cultivating for our Fall crops. We had our whole field under cover crops and green manure. We had just cut them all down and tilled the soil so it was really light and fluffy but we lost it, all our top soil.”
R – “In 2013 we built a big flood levee to protect us from losing our top soil but with the force of the wave the levee broke. It was insane. We lost all our garlic seed stock which is our signature. Big garlic.”
R – “I’ve saved a bit of machinery by flushing it out but it’s making noises it didn’t make before.”
S – “He’s been going non stop.”
“We have a Gofund me as most of Lismore has had to do. It all adds up so fast. We have no income and still have a mortgage and it’s going to take us a long time to get back. 9 years of work gone in a night. Now we also need to pay for seedlings we lost but we are already back into it. There’s no stopping us and we are so looking forward to being back at the market as soon as possible.”