After the floods

10 May, 2022, originally via Medium

It’s been ten days since the big rains of the NSW Northern Rivers floods and I’m taking a moment to reflect on the past week. I’m currently safe on a hilltop in Huonbrook, in Byron’s hinterland, cut off from the world both physically and virtually, except for those neighbours to whom I can walk.

Having moved here only two months ago (the seventh move in a year with my two small children, such is the nature of the housing crisis already gripping the region for several years), the past week has been a welcome opportunity to connect with neighbours, share stories and pool resources. The changes in the landscape — both natural and man-made — have brought some neighbours closer, as 3 metre deep water holes have become shallow creek crossings, and others further apart, as causeway crossings have fallen away and landslides swallowed roads. One metre boulders in place for at least one generation of creek dwellers have shifted hundreds of metres downstream and landslides have cut access through the valley — apparently one hole further up Huonbrook the size of the MCG.

For the past week, access has only been on foot. The gradual repair of the less damaged roads, mostly by locals, now supports quad bikes and four wheel drives. Supply drops — initially via helicopter, and now car ferries between damaged sections of road — are being coordinated within the community in liaison with outside support. The situation improved dramatically with the recent restoration of power for many homes after a week in the dark.

When the flood hit, I was six weeks deep in an attempt to connect a landline and ADSL internet through Telstra — what should have been a simple situation of turning back on a connection which had only been disconnected two months prior. I finally received notice today, after seven weeks, that a technician would attend the property — except they won’t, with no access via road, something you would have imagined Telstra would be aware of by now, ten days into a natural disaster.

Yesterday my neighbour attempted to inform Telstra of a cut in the copper wire which connects half the valley, of which he knew after pulling the cables out of the creek on his property. After being transferred four times between various departments within the seemingly disfunctional organisation, and then hung up on — something that I myself have experienced multiple times in the past two months in my attempt to have a landline connected — he gave up.

Listening to ABC local radio during the first wrought days of flooding — most people’s only connection to the outside world, with power, internet and reception out across most of the Byron Shire — I was aghast to hear that thousands of residents had not had access to triple zero for days. I noted Telstra’s GM for Northern NSW, Michael Marom comment on multiple occasions on the “unprecedented” nature of the event. We’ve been talking about climate change for decades. I was a member of the group involved in declaring a climate emergency in the Byron Shire four years ago. We know that conditions are going to get worse with climate change — which implies, by definition, that future events will ALWAYS be unprecedented. So why are we so unprepared?

There has been pressure in the past weeks for residents in stable homes in Wilson’s Creek, Wanganui and Huonbrook communities to evacuate to lower grounds — despite the lack of housing and vehicles available — given the perceived liability of those remaining without proper connection. I find it difficult to ignore the irony that despite (unintentionally and regretfully) having my face splashed across ABC national news exactly a year ago, in relation to the ongoing housing crisis in the Byron Shire and portrayed as a “homeless ex-investment banker”, I was not offered any help, yet now, finally in a secure, non flood-prone home, I am a liability and require to be moved on. I spoke yesterday to an international visitor who’s family is being put up in holiday accommodation in a Byron Bay at the expense of the government, yet no one offered this to the hundreds of local mothers and children sleeping in their cars and tents over the past year.

I lost a friend in the floods last week and currently have more questions than answers regarding our collective preparedness for this event and our implementation of solutions (I note how quickly police and army are available to stop a peaceful protest versus how long it takes to deploy support to disaster-affected communities who can’t call for help) but I think these are conversations we must have.

Until then, I sit atop a mountain and remember my friend, father and wise man, Troy ‘Birdman’ O’Keeffe (1970–2022), who, with his faithful dog Tahni, left us during these floods. “Thoughts have wings.” Fly free my friend.

9 March 2022

Update (16 March): Five very buff Sydney-based RFS crew who would have been very useful two weeks ago door-knocked on us on Monday in Huonbrook — a full two weeks after the floods took out power, phone lines, internet and roads. They didn’t get the call to leave Sydney until last Friday — 12 days after the first calls for help. Local community groups had evacuated anyone who needed it over a week prior via privately donated helicopters and volunteer coordination. Essential Energy repaired power to the area over a week ago via helicopter but Telstra have still not been seen.

‘Secret knowledge of backroads’, Troy ‘Birdman’ O’Keeffe, Byron Bay, 2016