A disaster every year: What it’s like living on the Macleay River for the past 16 years

Conrad Tamblyn has lived on the Macleay River for the past 16 years. 

Over that period of time, there have been 26 natural disaster declarations in the LGA, according to Kempsey Shire Council. 

Tamblyn went to school in Kempsey, and like others who have grown up in the region, he has lived through drought, floods, fires and coastal storms.

Reflecting on the recent flood event, Tamblyn said it stood out compared to others.

“This one had something special about it,” Tamblyn told the Mid North Coaster.

Tamblyn, who is a teacher at St Paul’s College in Kempsey, recalls when the school was closed last week due to flood warnings. He thought he had plenty of time to make his way home to his farm in Temagog.

“I checked the river heights, and there was no hurry to get home, but by the time I got to Temagog bridge, it was way under,” he said. “The speed with which the river shot up because all the soils were saturated.”

ABC Meteorologist Tom Saunders reported on Thursday that May has been the wettest month on record - going back to the 1800s – for the Mid North Coast.

“I thought, we’re kind of safe…but then it just bucketed down 300 to 400 millimetres for the next couple of days,” Tamblyn said.

Living in the area since he was eight years old, Tamblyn has experienced a number of severe weather events. “The hardest ones have been the fires and this flood,” he said.

“This is the only flood that took out my boundary fences…I don’t know if it was the speed of the river or what it was, but…it was pretty big.”