As we write, hundreds of producers and country people around NSW are battling floodwaters, evacuating their homes or counting the cost of their losses.

Margi Kirkby from Gwydir Olives at Moree is a familiar face at farmers’ markets and trade shows. Read her first-hand account of what the recent northern NSW floods were like for her. Don ‘t ever underestimate this country’s producers:

‘1 house, 1 dog, 2 people, 4 ducks, 12 Guinea Fowl, 12 hens, 1 rooster, countless mozzies, spiders and  critters all sharing a small 1.5 m space of lawn surrounding the house on the banks of the flooding Gwydir River near Moree. That is how we awoke to the biggest flood in the Gwydir/Mehi system for 50 years. With all those feet etc,  the smell and deposits are not so pleasant – but better than being totally underwater.

Will and I arrived home at 9pm the evening before, after making a decision to cut our Lord Howe Island holiday short. Luckily we could make connecting flights and arrived at the Moree airport, to be told we could not drive to our place. After some smooth talking we passed the first road block and  then walked through knee high water to borrow a neighbour’s tractor and  drove to The Grove. Then we worked for several hours to lift as many cartons of oil and  paraphernalia, rusty car wheels and  axels, welders, gas cylinders and  grinders and  a lot of my mothers “stuff” that had been dumped into “The Shed” to be dealt with at a later date. By midnight we were exhausted and  waded back through the water to the house to have a very sleepless night.
The 11 half grown Guinea Fowl chicks and  4 ducklings needed to be located in the flowing water!! We only found 1 chick and  brought it into the laundry for the night. In the daylight hours we located all the other animals and herded them onto our dry mound. Even the ducks could not swim against the rushing water. We lost 1 chicken.

During the day we watched the rivers rise very quickly, swamping our marker sticks every few hours. The water entered “The Shed”, demolished the veggie garden, swept the rubbish and  compost heaps away, swept debris onto the chook house fence over 1 m high, broke a levee bank in the garden and generally tore the place to pieces. There was no dry land on our farm. At about midday the waters calmed and started to drop ever so slowly. The birds started to swoop into the water to bathe and catch insects and the roar subsided slightly. The whir of the helicopters still continued.

The SES in its wisdom, ordered our power to be disconnected “as running water under houses causes fires” They failed to realise that we are on a concrete mound. After many phone calls, several hours and  a request to have a generator dropped from the sky, we were reconnected. The power is vital for many reasons - our land line is very crackly due to water damage and we are relying on mobile phones for river readings and  communications, plus there is very little food in the house and what there is, is in the freezer. Earlier in the day we had filled water containers as the bore had been immobilised.

The flood water makes quite a loud noise as it rushes and swirls across the garden and  around the house, the cacophony of frogs and crickets is deafening and the usual serene, quite evening on the banks of the Gwydir River has been turned into a night filled with distressed sounds and  loud unusual noises.

Tomorrow is another day and hopefully the water level will have dropped enough to allow us to wade across to the oil shed and start the enormous task of cleaning up. The animals will have a bit more space to spread themselves and the Gwydir Grove oil will flow again!!! Even if the cartons are muddy.

The following day the water dropped slightly and we started the mammoth task of hosing and sweeping. There was ½ m water through the sheds. No damage to the cars, but mud caked everywhere. 3 rescued horses were added to the animal count so we had a very full compliment on the mound. We are exhausted and have never swept and cleaned so much! We drove out late Sunday afternoon and helped a few others. The next job is to clean the debris from the garden. Every tree and  shrub has rubbish – straw and  twigs - on it.’