FLOOD fatigue has set in across the Bogan Shire as residents endure a sixth week of damaging river rises, road closures, disease bearing mosquitos, inundated crops and marooned livestock.

As Bogan Shire Mayor Glen Neill drove through the flooded yard at Neill Earthmoving last week he spoke of the frustration felt right through the Shire as businesses and households beyond the Nyngan levee dealt with yet more water down the Bogan and Macquarie Rivers.

The Bogan River reached a new high point of 4.27 metres in Nyngan olast week further swamping roads and surrounding country.

Clr Neill has had his earthmoving yard on the Mitchell Highway towards Bourke for 15 years and it has never flooded in that time, even in 2010 and 2016 when there was flooding around.

Whilst inconvenienced – and concerned about his heavy trucks becoming stranded – Clr Neill acknowledged there were many worse off, including rural residents who had been dealing with flood water since September.

“Usually with floods the water comes up and then it resides and we can all get on, but this time it’s just kept coming for weeks and weeks and everyone’s exhausted by it.”

Clr Neill was preparing to accompany the Bogan Shire General Manager Derek Francis on a road inspection that afternoon and was in no doubt there would be significant damage.

He said Council would have a difficult job assessing and repairing the damage, especially given many of the roads are still inundated.

As with all natural disasters, the effects on the community. are wide ranging. The Western Plains App has caught up with some of those who have been impacted.

Bogan Shire Mayor Glen Neill in his flooded earthmoving business yard.

Nyngan Riverside Caravan Park

Proximity to the Bogan River is usually the drawcard for holidaymakers at the Nyngan Riverside Tourist Park, but this year instead of water skiers the cabins are housing emergency services workers and families from isolated rural properties who need to access work and school.

Owner Emily Stanton describes this latest peak as the “worst ever”, with water inundating the front driveway and surrounding most of the accommodation.

The function rooms and about 20 of the 50 cabins have been unusable for the past five weeks due to the river levels, and may still be out of action for the upcoming Christmas party season.

“The water level is the highest it’s been since the 1990 flood and we’ve had lots of cancellations due to road closures and the fact we are under water,” Mrs Stanton said.

“Basically no-one with a caravan has been brave enough to enter the water leading up to the park, especially since our front entrance and entire driveway has been under water.”

“We are very lucky that we have been able to remain open and we really have had to make the most of what we have got – around 30 cabins.”

Mrs Carter said most of the available cabins were housing helicopter pilots from the SES and NSW Fire and Rescue which has been doing emergency food and fodder drops to flood-bound properties.

“Some of them are expecting they’ll be here doing it for months.

Housekeeper at the Nyngan Riverside Tourist Park, Ella Mounsey negotiating her way around flooded cabins

Nyngan Golf Club 

The Nyngan Golf Club is operating with a skeleton staff, most of whom are volunteers, to keep the Clubhouse ticking over, whilst the nine-hole course has been closed for the past six weeks.

 The course sits outside the Nyngan levee, and currently resembles an ocean, with only the tops of the flags identifying the holes above water.

President Croc Read said it the club had lost approximately $50,000 in expected revenue already as a result of the course closure – a sum which is growing each day.

“We were coming into our best time of the year with our Twilight Golf with around 80 players generating most of our income for the year,” Mr Read said. “We’ve also missed our annual sponsor days.”

Mr Read said the club was now relying on its regulars to volunteer during the afternoons to keep the Clubhouse open, whilst paid staff took holiday leave.

“When the water ever leaves, the cost of restoring the course could run into the tens of thousands, and we will be relying on grants to cover a lot of that,” he said.

The Nyngan Golf Course has been closed since the end of September.

The Nyngan Golf Course

School bus runs in chaos

Road closures right across the Shire have affected the school bus services this term. Some routes have not operated since school resumed for fourth term a month ago.

Annabelle Kennedy, who lives north of the Duck Creek at “Half Moon”, has moved into Nyngan with her four children Max, Lola, Florence and Daisy, to enable them to attend school and preschool.

“We went away for the school holidays and then came back to find we had to live in town when school started [due to flooding over roads] so it’s been five weeks away from home in total,” she said.

“We are assuming this will be our life for this school term as even when the water goes down some unsealed roads on our bus run won’t be adequate for the school bus.”

Maintaining school bus routes has been a real challenge for Langley’s Coaches which operates the run used by the Kennedy family, as well as 16 other services across the region.

Company spokesperson Sarah Hansen said the Dubbo-based service was dealing with many different flood situations affecting its school bus routes.

“Thankfully we have wonderful drivers who keep us up to date, and it is unfortunate but we have had to make the decision to cancel some school runs at times. We always have the students who travel on our services at the forefront of our mind when making these decisions. It is really hard when we know there are many children who are unable to get to school because of so many reasons, and that we are unable to transport them at times due to flooding, or road closures,” Ms Hansen said.

“We continually try to make the most informed decisions we can by speaking with our drivers, and with council, and many other avenues to ensure we are making what we feel to be the most correct decision, remembering that the safety of our students is number one priority.”

Essential workers

Flood bound essential works such as health care providers have also had to resort to new methods of travel to get to Nyngan from isolated properties.

Registered nurse, Sophie Greig, came in from her property via SES helicopter to be able to work her shifts at the Nyngan Multi-Purpose Health Service.

Jacqui Chapman, who also works for the Western Local Health District, had to pack her gear onto the quad bike to get down her 6km flooded driveway.

Dealing with the rubbish

Rates, roads and rubbish are Council’s core business, and when the Nyngan Waste Facility became unreachable due to floodwater, Bogan Shire Council had to come up with a solution.

For weeks the “tip” has been closed due to floodwater over Canonba Road. 

Council has been able to maintain its kerbside collection service, taking the rubbish over 100km to waste facilities in other communities.

To assist community members with extra household and garden waste, Council has set up monitored skip bins at the Nyngan Showground.

This service was so well patronised in the first week that Council was sourcing larger bins.

Bogan Shire General Manager Derek Francis said it was hoped the bins would prevent illegal dumping of rubbish.

Skip bins at Nyngan Showground

Accessing isolated workplaces

Not only are rural families been isolated for Nyngan because of the floodwater, but they’ve had difficulty getting employees and contractors out from towns to carry out essential jobs like shearing and lamb-marking.

Many of these tasks are essential for the health of the health of the animals, and cannot be delayed indeterminably, especially with flystrike, foot abscess and parasitic worm infestations flourishing in the warm humid conditions.

Nyngan-based shearing contractor Mick Taylor said flooding right across NSW was making it difficult for members of his shearing team to get to jobs.

Last week he had shearers unable to leave Brewarrina for a job at Nyngan because of flooding.

“We drove all the way out to one job south west of Nyngan and were almost there and saw the size of the creek and realised we’d have to go back.”

Wool producers who had managed to get shearers to their flocks were often unable to deliver their wool as the roads were not open, especially to heavy transport.

Nyngan-based shearing contractor Mick Taylor has had members of his team stranded by floodwater at Brewarrina, and also experienced difficulty accessing flood bound properties.