River Murray Recovery Stories
Adele Johnson · 40 min
Adele Johnson turned childhood memories of a remote Murray River settlement into her family's forever home — then watched floodwaters slowly surround it, navigating 70 days of generator hum, boat commutes at midnight, and a community that never stopped asking how they could help.
Support services
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Adele Johnson grew up spending summers at a remote settlement called Pyatt, 12 kilometres outside Loxton on the Murray River. When the property came up for sale in 2015, she and her partner Justin bought it together with her mum and sister. What began as childhood memory became home: Adele works as a baker at Loxton Country Bakehouse, Justin runs an earthmoving business, and they raised three children across 250 acres of floodplain with two dogs, two cats, and twenty chooks. They knew the risks. The first shack on the property had gone under in the 1956 flood, so the second one was built higher. They'd lived through a smaller flood in 2016. When warnings came in 2022 that the Murray would rise beyond even that, Adele and Justin prepared what they could: jacking up their daughter Chelsea's shipping container bedroom, moving livestock to high ground, marking out flood predictions with a laser level.
But the 2022 flood didn't follow the old patterns. It came slower than expected, then faster. For 70 days, Adele drove a boat across the floodplain at night to reach her bakery job in town, navigating by white reflector posts she'd hammered onto trees. The family stayed put. They couldn't leave. The water seeped into every low point on the property, moving with a laziness an old caretaker had once described to her: water always finds the easiest path. Around them, neighbours rebuilt, the community showed up without being asked, and Loxton itself stayed dry and bustling. Adele still gets that feeling driving down the hill to her home on the river. She plans to stay.
Every story here belongs to the person who lived it. They said yes to sharing it, and we sat with it carefully before it went up. Nothing here is exaggerated and nothing is used without permission. Read how we handle these stories ↗
Kintsugi Heroes · Registered Australian not-for-profit · kintsugiheroes.com.au ↗