Beyond the Deluge: Flood Resilience Stories from the Hunter Valley

Beyond the Deluge: Flood Resilience Stories from the Hunter Valley

G'day, John Millam from Kintsugi Heroes, and welcome to Beyond the Deluge.

There are some encounters in life that no amount of preparation planning and past experience will equip us to deal with when they hit. On the 6th of July, 2022, the rivers and streams outside of Wollombi broke and other villages in the Undervalley, New South Wales flowed over the banks, and the small towns were flooded and devastation was left in the watersway.

Over 300 locals traumatized and displaced, were left without support, power, and even aid for a time, while the worst flood in 70 years ravaged the place they called home.

While it's not uncommon in rural Australia to face adversity, the fires of 2019 went through the same area and were devastating. And yet, floods bring a special kind of awful with the mud and stink. We feel despair, we feel the loss of our precious momentos and loved things, and our sense of safety. The ongoing impact is still being managed, and so much cost and impact must also count the trauma and anxiety left by.

Yet, from this devastation, hope will find a way. And here, we also find talk of heroes, of generosity and community.(...) In this special "Konsoogi Heroes" limited podcast series, "Beyond the Deluge," we hope to share stories of the floods, both adversity and resilience from the towns and villages. We've spoken to a group of people who have varying views and experiences, and through them, we start to capture the awful realities of coping with the Deluge. And we also hear them share moments of courage, care and wonder.

I will walk with the lived experiences of these people who worked hard to overcome the dark time and are working hard to reset, restore and rebuild their lives, their homes and their community.

It also brought back memories. For me as a child, I lived in the northwest of New South Wales, a little town called Weewool, where we went through five full floods in seven years. As a kid, it was almost exciting, lots of people pitching in, yet it was also terrible and scary.

I can remember vividly walking outside my home, up to my chest in water, constantly ducking out of the way of floating furniture and rubbish, and of course, brown snakes. All that work and loss, in the end, saw my parents toss it in and end to Sydney.

In these conversations, I see how hard the folks in and around Broke are working to bring this place fully back to life.

Kintsugi, you may know, is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold and water. They feel like the repaired object with its scars becomes even more beautiful than the original.

So while events, like the hardships of the floods, can push us to breaking, hearing the stories of spirit, of courage, and restoration can help us cope, heal, and come back stronger as a person and as a community. Sharing those stories is part of that gold glue.

Please watch this fortnightly podcast, Kintsugi Heroes, Beyond the Deluge, and please be inspired as you hear the tales from Beyond the Deluge.

Thank you.