Six months ago residents of a small New South Wales town woke to what they thought would be a normal Monday morning. 

A few hours later many people at Eugowra in the state’s central west were clinging to their roofs, being winched to safety by emergency services, and desperately trying to check if family and friends were safe.

The community had been hit by what has been described as an ‘inland tsunami’.

Residents say they were not given any warning that they would be hit by a wall of floodwater.

Eugowra farmer Kim Storey was rescued from her house which was almost submerged by the torrent.

“We have accomplished a lot [and] we feel quite proud of what we have accomplished in our recovery, but exhaustion is definitely setting in,” Ms Storey said.

“You don’t actually get a break.”

The repairs and rebuilds in Eugowra are taking time.

Residents have been wrangling insurance claims, sourcing labour and materials, all while trying to afford to reconstruct their homes and replenish household items swept away in the flood.

Ms Storey said the state government’s Back Home $20,000 grant was helpful, but the community has largely been relying on charitable donations.

“Our community has also been working really hard to raise enough money to try and fund things like household items, so that’s one thing people don’t need to worry about, and they can put that grant towards actually repairing the structure of their house,” she said.

In February, medium-term accommodation arrived in the town in the form of ‘pods’, a one-bedroom rectangular home featuring a kitchen, wardrobe, TV, and ensuite.

Across Cabonne Shire, which included other flood-hot areas of Cudal and Molong, 165 modules were made available.

Others are staying in caravans on their properties or in the showground as they continue the rebuild.

Millions in losses 

Tess Herbert owns a mixed farming operation near the town, with cattle, sheep, canola, and barley.

During the flood they lost “hundreds” of sheep, more than 50 kilometres of fencing, and 800 hectares of crops ready to harvest, costing them millions of dollars.

“We had no fences left so everything was just roaming free,” she said.

“Our neighbours’ stock were in our paddocks, some of ours were on their property because they floated down with the flood.

“We lost nearly all our canola which had been windrowed and was ready to go. We lost a lot of barley, and now there is a whole lot of pasture renovation going on.”

Government grants of up to $75,000 are available for primary producers impacted by the floods, however it falls well short of the damage to Ms Herbert’s farm.

Despite the cost of floods, Ms Herbert said they are beginning to feel confident they will get back on their feet.

“We feel reasonably comfortable, we have got our heads around the fact that it will take time,” she said.

“Thankfully we have cashflow with our feedlots which were one of the few things that survived unscathed.”

A region in recovery

The mayor of Cabonne, Kevin Beatty, said the impact of major flooding was also still being felt in the neighbouring towns of Molong, Cudal and Canowindra.

These communities also sustained extensive damage when flooding hit.

Mr Beatty said people there were still grappling with their own recovery.

“I guess we’d want it fixed, like yesterday, everything fixed,” he said.

“They require strict assessments done as well.

“The community and council is getting there.”

Mr Beatty said he had written to Premier Chris Minns to repeat his request for the state government to consider land buybacks and providing more funding.

He had asked the former premier Dominic Perrottet but said he had not had a response.

“I’ve written letters to the new premier and in particular spoken about the flood buyback and also invited him out to here to view the total devastation that happened across the whole shire,” he said.