Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is visiting the flood-ravaged communities in Taree, but residents say the promised government assistance falls far short of what's needed to confront the scale of the disaster.
For over a century, the Andrews family have lived in a house on farmland in Taree on the NSW mid-north coast.
Now, it's the scene of unimaginable destruction.
A densely packed wall of debris — several metres high — surrounds the back of the home.
Trees, tangled metal, broken fences, farm equipment, and power lines are wrapped around all the structures in the area — washed up by raging floodwaters that ripped through the area last week.
Ian Andrews said he's heartbroken to see his childhood home destroyed. Source: SBS News
“It's heartbreaking”, he said, choking back tears.
"You can see the amount of debris we've got to remove, and we need to get it done quickly," he said.
"We need trucks. There’s 20, 30, 40 truckloads [of debris] there."
The Andrews family have lived in this house for more than 115 years. Now it's surrounded by debris nearly as high as the roof. Source: SBS News / Alexandra Jones
"It's just devastating. It's stuff that we can't fix," she said.
"We are only pensioners, so it makes it very hard money-wise."
"We don't know whether we'll be able to come back and live in this house because the water's got so high."
Sharyn said other than friends and family, they've been offered no assistance.
"We haven't had anyone here other than my family. We've had no help from anybody."
"The longer they leave it, the worse it is. The mud smells," Sharyn said.
“People can't do it, it's got to be machinery. People can't move this."
Markings inside the Andrews family home show the water level in 2021 floods, and a line far above it now shows how high waters rose this year. Source: SBS News
PM visits flood-ravaged areas
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is visiting Taree on Tuesday, and announced on Monday that 70 ADF personnel would be deployed to the region to assist.
"They will be involved in clean-up, in debris removal, in welfare checks and re-establishing critical infrastructure," Albanese said.
They will be joined by 100 disaster relief workers by the end of the week.
Ian and Sharyn's grandson, Josef Proctor, said he'd like to see more boots on the ground.
"Any help is good, but would I say it's good enough? No. No way," he said.
"This is like a war zone. A disaster, just catastrophic."
Single father of three Josef Proctor said he's devastated by the destruction, but the community coming together to help has lifted his spirits. Source: SBS News
Josef lives on the same street as his grandparents and is also one of the thousands now displaced by the disaster.
"I'm a single dad of three kids and their rooms are gone. Clothes gone. It's been pretty extreme."
"If I didn't have my mum, we would have nowhere to go,” Proctor said.
"I'm going to have to move away."
He said he can’t quite believe what he's seeing.
“Whole buildings in sections, like whole chicken coops... just scattered."
The NSW government is opening five recovery centres in flood-impacted areas from Tuesday, offering a range of support services to affected residents. Source: SBS News
Helping hands
Shattered by the news of his hometown’s suffering, ex-rugby league player Matt Adamson travelled on Monday from Queensland to help with the clean-up.
"I grabbed some rakes and some boxes of gum boots and stuff because a lot of farmers were saying they needed that sort of general assistance just to get through,” Adamson said.
"I get pretty emotional, because as a young kid growing up in this area, it was a beautiful place to grow up.
Ex-rugby league player Matt Adamson (right) travelled from Queensland to help his hometown clean up after devastating floods. Sharyn Andrews (left) saidshe remembers Adamson from when he was a child. Source: SBS News
"The people that are helping, like Matty, he's come from Queensland because his parents live here in town, and we've known him from when he was a little kid," Sharyn said.
After seeing the scale of the damage, Adamson also thinks much more assistance is needed.
"Has the prime minister been here yet? Has he turned up?" he said.
"This is a big moment to come and help local people who pay their taxes and are struggling to survive, especially our farmers," Adamson said.
Millions of dollars in disaster relief payments are now available to residents and businesses in 19 council areas.
Ian Andrews hopes he’ll be eligible.
"This is a lower-income [area], like a lot of pensioners, a lot of older people in the Taree area, and I know there's a lot of them that have been caught in the flood. They're probably just as bad off as I am," Andrews said.
Record-breaking floods
Sharyn said the water last week rose nearly a metre above the last devastating floods in 2021.
Her late mother-in-law also kept records of previous flood events.
"She said the 1929 was the worst flood. And this flood was bigger than 1929.
"She always kept a journal and had all the all the heights recorded. And I have continued that since we've lived here," she said.
Still smiling as they confront the mammoth cleanup ahead. (From right) Matt Adamson, Josef Proctor and Sharyn Andrews. Source: SBS News
"And that's what I say to the kids. You know, the kids are upset, and I said, "You know, we’ve just got our memories."
