“We have had some people tell us that they are considering leaving their property and starting again somewhere else,” said David Galloway Executive Officer from the Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS).

Speaking to the Western Plains App, Galloway said people in the region had endured multiple natural disasters leaving some of them so emotionally exhausted they were considering leaving the region and/or farming.

“I think the impact on mental health and well-being was particularly hard on those who then went straight into harvest,” he told the Western Plains App. 

“Then of course there is their financial position. We have calculated that the average cost to a farmer from the floods is in excess of a million.”

Picture: NSW Nationals

Galloway told the Western Plains App it would normally take a “number of years” for a primary producer to recover from a financial loss of that magnitude.

“The roads and the infrastructure in your region have taken all absolute pounding. The roads in particular in the Central West are proving an ongoing problem," he said. 

"So we know there are properties were the water has receded but that trucks cannot get into the property because the roads are in such poor condition and that is having flow on effects”.

CEO of Central West Farming Systems, Condobolin-based Diana Fear told the Western Plains App it's not just road problems that are hampering flood recovering but a shortage of materials and labour too.

“Nearly everyone I talk to who has flood damage is struggling to get tradespeople and labour of all sorts to fix the damage," she said.

"Even in good times it's difficult to find contractors across the region. There so many of us with fences that still need repairing as well as levy banks and channels. 

"This is all presenting very big challenges. It will take at least another six months before people can fix their properties”.

Diana Fear. Image: Central West Farming Systems.

Fear explained that water still hadn’t receded on many properties and that one solution that must be looked at as soon as possible is raising dam walls.

She the Government funding provided is much appreciated, but a lot of it wont even touch the sides.

Galloway praised both Governments in quickly setting up grants schemes and also banks in providing temporary excess to farmers who have experienced natural disasters.

He said 9,000 primary producers across NSW have been effected by floods in the past 12 months.

The NSW state government is projecting that the damage could be more than $400 million state-wide.

“It will be interesting to see what happens and how we move forward with this” Fear told the Western Plains App.