May 2021
Corindi Beach is just north of Woopi (what locals call Woolgoolga) north of Coffs Harbour in NSW. Back in early March they had a one in 500 year rain event. Local farmers describe a wall of water larger and faster than has ever been seen before flooding houses upto a meter deep. Tractors, water tanks, fences and pretty much anything in its path was washed away.
BlazeAid set up a camp in the local caravan park and the volunteers responded from the towns around as well as some grey nomads. Having time to spare I took a drive down from Maroochydore to do a couple of weeks work.
A small team effectively cleared or rebuilt on average about 500m per day. Just about every farm had wet paddocks and the work at times was tough. One of the berry farms on Sherwood Creek Rd lost millions of dollars of produce already prepared for market the next day. The flood waters rose during the night peaking at about 3am and then reseeding very quickly.
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| Berry farm devastation. |
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| Very handy thing to have on a ute. |
