Carly Dawson · 52 min
A newcomer who had only lived in Broke for a year, sick with COVID and alone, found that the worst flood in 70 years became the moment she truly understood what community means.
Hear this story
Carly had only lived in Broke for a year when she bought the house there. After years of traveling with her son in a caravan, she was ready to stop moving. She found work at a winery, put her goats on the property, and was starting to build a life in the quiet Hunter Valley village. Then July 6th, 2022 came.
She was sick with COVID and alone when the rain that had been falling for weeks turned into something no one expected. The 1949 flood, which locals still remembered, had come from a different direction. This one breached the village in ways people thought were impossible. Carly woke to a lapping sound at her back door, thinking for a moment she was in a boat. The water was rising fast. A workmate named Gary came to check on her. A friend with higher ground offered shelter. A neighbor waded through debris to help her hook up a caravan. Within hours, Carly went from isolation to being held by her community.
What happened next was harder to name. Seeing neighbors' houses destroyed meters from her own. Watching a family with three children lose everything because they rented instead of owned, and fall through the gaps of government support. Strangers coming to gawk at the wreckage like it was a spectacle. The piles of debris and erosion holes that took weeks to disappear, making it impossible to stop looking at what had been lost.
But there was something else. Eating meals together at the community hall. Hearing people's stories and being heard. Knowing her neighbors far better than a year of ordinary living would have allowed. Learning, in the wreckage, that looking after the people around you and being looked after matters more than anything else.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available: • Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au • GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
“I woke up to a lapping sound and I honestly for a minute thought that I was in a boat cuz my brain wasn't working properly”
“by the time they said to evacuate there was nowhere to evacuate too the words had already been cut off”
“it it sort of bought bought home like what a um a caring community and Village it is on the whole”
The hero, today
Carly learned that in the immediate aftermath, looking after the people around you and being looked after in those first days was the most important thing to do, more important than saving possessions. The Broke community pulled together to help, but support fell unevenly: homeowners got assistance, but families who were renting and didn't fit eligibility criteria were left to find their own way, which meant relying on neighbors and community fundraising rather than government help. The physical reminders of the flood, the piles of debris and erosion holes that took weeks to disappear, made it harder for residents to move forward because they had to look at the wreckage every day. Carly found that people in the village wanted to share their stories and hear other people's stories after the flood, and that sharing helped them process what had happened. Living in a tourist area meant that strangers came to look at the damage as though it were a spectacle, which made it harder for residents who were grieving the loss of their belongings and their neighbors' homes.
Yes. Carly Dawson is a real person who shared their own story in their own words. Kintsugi Heroes is a not-for-profit that shares first-person stories of overcoming adversity, told with the person's consent.
Kintsugi Heroes, a registered Australian not-for-profit. Every story is shared with the hero's own consent and reviewed under Kintsugi Heroes' trauma-informed content standard before it goes public.
Carly learned that in the immediate aftermath, looking after the people around you and being looked after in those first days was the most important thing to do, more important than saving possessions.
The Broke community pulled together to help, but support fell unevenly: homeowners got assistance, but families who were renting and didn't fit eligibility criteria were left to find their own way, which meant relying on neighbors and community fundraising rather than government help.
The physical reminders of the flood, the piles of debris and erosion holes that took weeks to disappear, made it harder for residents to move forward because they had to look at the wreckage every day.
John Milham (Host) · 00:00
Kintsugi Heroes brings you the following flood resilience stories in partnership with Singleton Neighbourhood Centre and grant funding from the Hunter New England and Central Coast Primary Health Network.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 00:12
To find out more about this podcast, head to kintsugiheroes.com.au.
John Milham (Host) · 00:23
On July 6th, 2022, the worst flood in 70 years hit the town of Broke and the surrounding Hunter Valley region. The The community is still recovering from the trauma the floods brought, destroying their homes and their livelihoods. In this special limited series of Kintsugi Heroes, John Millum sits down with the community who suffered as a result of the floods and gives them space to share their adversity, resilience, and compassion.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 00:50
It's only through connection and empathy that there can be a path to recovery.
John Milham (Host) · 00:55
These are stories of trauma and can be confronting.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 00:58
If you find they have a triggering effect, please reach out to someone who can help keep you safe. Listen in as John takes you beyond the deluge with Kintsugi Heroes.
John Milham (Host) · 01:13
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Carly found that people in the village wanted to share their stories and hear other people's stories after the flood, and that sharing helped them process what had happened.
This conversation includes a year in broke before the water came, finding a place to land, sick at home when the rain started, the flood broke thought it knew, water at the patio door and neighbors and strangers who showed up.
So welcome all to another episode of Kintsugi Heroes, flood stories from Broke and the 2022 floods. And today we're talking to a local who lives right in the middle of it all, in the middle of town, in the oldest house. Karlie, you were just saying the oldest house in the village. One of the oldest, yeah.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 01:35
Well, I don't think it's the oldest, but yeah, it's up there.
John Milham (Host) · 01:39
Well, I think you get all the gravitas that the house has, right? Because I don't know about that, but yeah. So Carly Dawson, welcome to Kintsugi Heroes and the stories of the Broke floods. Maybe we start by you sharing a little bit about your story, how you are there in Broke and your relationship to the village. The area and leading right up until the 6th of July?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 02:06
Okay, well, I only moved into Broke almost a year to the day from the floods. So the year before in '21, I bought the house here. I'd sort of been around the area for a little while before that. My son and I had spent a long time traveling and working around Australia with a caravan. And, and so we had no plans to settle in Broke. It just was a case of sort of circumstances led us here to the Hunter where I was working on a farm and became good friends with the people that own the farm. Subsequently got a job here in the Broke area and it was it was, you know, a few, quite a few years we'd been traveling probably for about 5 years at that stage. So it was time to sort of settle down somewhere and try something new. And Broke it was.
John Milham (Host) · 03:08
So you settled in Broke and a year later, you know, with the other residents, long and short term, with something dramatic.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 03:14
So yeah, yeah, that's right. Yes. So we, we, we came in sort of on the back end of the the 2019 bushfires, which I heard a lot of stories about and, and had heard all about. And then, yeah, we sort of very quickly turned into a very rainy year with a few flood, floodings before the big one, obviously.
John Milham (Host) · 03:40
Wow. So settling down in Broke, what did that feel like?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 03:45
Different. I hadn't sort of settled anywhere in most of my adult life, to be honest. I've sort of moved, moved around a lot between places, working overseas for a long time and working in different places in Australia. So buying a house was a really big thing, being a single parent as well, financially, as, as well as a big lifestyle change for us. But the, the village was very welcoming, and we have the great little village school down on the road that I sent my son to, and he was, you know, very happy there for the, I think, week that he was there before we went into lockdown after he started. So yeah, it was an interesting beginning to our time in the village, that's for sure. But, uh, there's, you know, I made some good connections, uh, pretty early on.
John Milham (Host) · 04:42
It must have been, um, interesting after, you know, being so nomadic Right. Coming to a place that often many of the people around you have roots that go way back into that space.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 04:55
Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. But I love hearing the stories of people that grew up in this area and it seems to have gone through a lot of, a lot of changes and a lot of growth, especially recently. And so, yeah, it's, it's nice. It's a nice place to spend a while for sure.
John Milham (Host) · 05:15
So how did you feel? You know, what were the characteristics of the area that you decided to spend more time around? What drew you to it?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 05:28
Well, so like really circumstance, I got a job in a winery up just up the road in Broke managing an art gallery. And I really was looking for a small farm actually. I wanted a, you know, a property. But property prices suddenly were booming and I just couldn't afford to do that. So this house came onto the market just at the right time. I guess I was lucky that I caught it before property prices started to go really through the roof. And it's a big enough spot that I could put my goats on it and have, you know, a couple animals and play around with the property a bit. It's quiet, it's rural, it's affordable. That was it, really. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 06:22
Sounds like a lot of boxes ticked.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 06:24
So yeah. Yes. And it really was, I think, a case of just, you know, right, right place, right time. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 06:31
Beautiful.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 06:32
Like I said, I never know about Broke at All before.
John Milham (Host) · 06:36
Well, speaking of right place, right time. One would wonder, right? 12 months in, you've got your goats settled in and, you know, developing, you know, veggie gardens and all, and, you know, improving things. Yeah. And there's an unexpected event, right?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 06:53
Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 06:54
And yeah, how did you go leading up and at the beginning of the flood? How did you navigate that time?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 07:03
Well, I was pretty busy around that time. I was working up the road and trying to, to get a lot of work done on this place. It was, it was in need of a lot of repair and maintenance, and it's a big job, very big job. So I was doing a lot here and, and working and looking after my son, obviously. And the, the rains had been pretty persistent for, for, you know, for a long time as well. There were a couple of other floods you know, that cut my work off from, uh, from town and, and that just beforehand. But it was school holidays and I had just sent my son down to Sydney to spend time with his grandparents so that I could, you know, just concentrate on work and he could have a little holiday down there. So I was on my own and, um, I think like one— he was supposed to be down there for a week or 10 days and one day in I tested positive to COVID. So I was quite, quite sick and couldn't work anyway. So I was just stuck at home.
John Milham (Host) · 08:13
So that was in the lead up to the flood?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 08:16
Yeah, like, like I think 2 or 3 days before. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 08:20
Wow.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 08:20
Wow.
John Milham (Host) · 08:21
So, so like you're at home, like recovering, you know, trying to get through COVID, which can be pretty miserable. Did you know that a flood was coming?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 08:30
Yes and no. We, because we'd had a couple of floods earlier that year that had both cut off the road down to Wallenbai both times and pretty significantly, like it gets quite, quite deep down there. And like I said, that's between my house and my work. So when people were talking about, you know, there's probably gonna be another flood, that's sort of what you think. Okay, well it's gonna cut off Wallenbai Road. And yeah, I didn't, didn't imagine that it would— like, there was talk of it being big, there was talk of it coming into the village, but it was almost not like we'd seen it come up close but never breach sort of a certain level. So, um, and also I was, yeah, I was sick, I was in a fog, so I wasn't really paying much attention to what was going on around. I was just sleeping a lot and trying to, you know, get get well.
John Milham (Host) · 09:31
Interesting time. Like, wow. So like, Broke has known floods, right? It's not, it's not unused to having the water coming up. The locals, the people you were talking to, were they confident everything would be all right? It was another case.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 09:49
Yeah, pretty much. I'd heard of, there was a big flood in And I'm probably gonna get the year wrong, somewhere in the '40s, '46, I think. '49, I think it was.
John Milham (Host) · 09:59
'49, maybe.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 10:00
Um, but from what I've heard since, it was a different type of flood event. It came from a different side or a different area. Um, and so it didn't, it didn't come into the village the same way that this flood came into the village. But also since then, obviously the village has grown by a huge amount and, um, and the natural waterways have probably been affected as well. So. I hadn't heard anyone that thought that the water could come in the way that it did into the village this time.
John Milham (Host) · 10:31
Right. So on the day, you know, like, so it was, you know, building levels overnight. So what was happening?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 10:38
Yeah, I was not feeling very well.
John Milham (Host) · 10:42
That is like, that, that sounds terrible. That sounds like a horrible scenario.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 10:48
It's a bad night. Um, I remember I was trying to— because the, the only news that I was getting was on Facebook. So the, the notice board was, you know, every time I thought about it, I just, you know, look up and see what people are commenting on the notice board. But it was, it was, um, it was getting dark, then the electricity went off, and it was cold as well because it was winter. So I had the fire going and I was just sitting by the fire for some light and some warmth. And, um, and I remember there was a message at one stage that said the floodwater has reached, um, Howe Street, which is what my, my house backs onto. But it was an intersection that was further down in the village, and I'm like, seemed to be higher up than that, than that spot. And it didn't seem to be like a, you know, everybody get out. Sort of message. And then, yeah, I can't, I can't really remember when we got the message saying to evacuate, but by the time they said to evacuate, there was nowhere to evacuate to. The roads had already been cut off. So you could see on the messages like, you can't go into Singleton because the road's been cut off by water. And then obviously Wallumbi Road floods very quickly and you wouldn't go anywhere down there anyway. And then the road out to Cessnock fairly early on got cut off as well, 'cause they're all on waterways. So they all got cut off and then we get a message saying leave town now. But you know, bit useless when there's nowhere to leave to.
John Milham (Host) · 12:22
My goodness. Did that panic you? Like, what was the feeling about that? Saying, realizing, um, this is getting out of hand. Yeah.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 12:30
Again, again, bit of a COVID fog. So I still didn't, you know, I was looking at going, well, I guess we can't get out and just keeping up with the Facebook. I guess I really didn't think that it would get to my house, and maybe that was naive of me, but I had no reason to believe that the water would get that high. And so I was just, you know, keeping in touch. I have a neighbor who doesn't live here anymore, but she's also on her own, and we had been, you know, talking in the days leading up to it and the evening of, just checking in on each other. And so yeah, at one stage I think I just, I dozed off and then I woke up and it was really late. I can't remember exactly what time it was. I probably should remember that, but it was, it was late and I woke up to a lapping sound and I honestly for a minute thought that I was in a boat because my brain wasn't working properly. And I was like, oh, hang on, that's, that doesn't sound good. And I went to one of my back rooms to look out the window onto the Howe Street side, and the water was up around the house. So, um, at that stage I went out to the, to the front patio, and, um, and the water was completely up to the, the top of the stairs of the patio. Wow. Yeah, so that's when, that's when I panicked. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 13:58
So you're like, what do you do at that moment?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 14:02
Um, I called my, my neighbor straight away because I was concerned that maybe she hadn't realized that the water had gotten up so high. She had, she was well ahead of me, but I, I called her and she said that she was at the community hall, which was where the evacuation center was. Yeah. Um, but she was in her car on the road outside of the hall 'cause she had her two dogs with her and she couldn't take them inside 'cause she didn't have any enclosure for them. So she was just sitting in her car. She was quite concerned about her situation as well because the road was a little bit higher. But yeah, could tell that she was, she was a bit worried about how much further the water would go up and whether she would be stuck, you know, in her car 'cause there's nowhere to drive to. That's right.
John Milham (Host) · 14:49
There's no, there's no, you know, at that time there was no one to know who knew what the water would be doing.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 14:55
So, right, and we couldn't get out of town in any direction. So unless we had somewhere with high ground in town, then yeah, you'd be concerned because there would be nowhere else to go. Obviously that didn't happen and the water never got up, you know, so high that there was nowhere in town to go to. But yeah, that was a bit of a concern on the night. And when I saw the water up to my patio, and I didn't know if it was gonna continue rising. That's when, yeah, I sort of realized I needed to get out pretty, pretty quickly. So I did a really bad job at putting a few things up on a bed. Not that I had anything worth saving, to be honest. But I chucked a few things up and packed a quick bag with some very useless items. Again, when I opened up my bag later, I was like, what was I thinking? But I did throw a jacket and some socks in there, and they, that came in handy.
John Milham (Host) · 15:53
Yeah. Wow. Right. So you, you're on your patio, you've packed a bag, you've thrown a, you know, a, a, you know, a couple of, uh, things on the bed. You head for the, uh, evacuation center. Is that right?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 16:06
Well, my car's in the front yard and it's, the water's already up to the, you know, up to middle of the tires in the car. So I chucked the dog in the car and, um, and then I had to, cause I've got a gate. That I have to open to get out. And my property is a little lower at that point. And then you go up to the, to the road. So I could still see that the road was just above water, but I had to wade through the water, which was very cold and, and running. I put gumboots on, but the water went straight into them straight away. Wow. And then it was a bit of a struggle to get the gate open cuz the, there was a whole lot of debris up against it. I got that open and I got out to the road and then I didn't know which way to go because there was water on both sides. So I was sitting up on the road going, okay, well now do I go in towards the store or do I go towards Cessnock? Can I get to the, to the community hall or are all the roads there? Because all the roads from my place to there sort of dip down a little bit. So I really wasn't sure which way to go. And as I sat there, um, I turned the car around I think a couple of times to try and see with the headlights. Um, and then, uh, Gary came to the rescue. I worked with Gary actually. He worked at the winery that I worked at as well. Um, and he was, uh, a bit of a hero that evening, rescuing a lot of people. Um, he had heard— so my neighbor who I called at the community hall, she'd actually gone in and told someone, I think Carly needs help. Um, and so I didn't know, but the SES had been told that someone might want to come and check on me. And Gary, um, obviously knew me and put his hand up and said, I'll go down and see if she's all right. And it turns out, so he, he came up and checked me on the road. And then in the meantime, another neighbor who lived a block down, who's a good friend of mine, who also had COVID, we got in touch and, uh, and she said, look, our house is higher and it's safe, and I've already got COVID, so you can come and stay with us. Because I couldn't go to the community hall.
John Milham (Host) · 18:24
No, no, like, my goodness, what complication being COVID positive.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 18:29
So her and her husband came also from the opposite direction. They found it as they, they've been in the town forever, so they knew sort of which ways they could go where the water wasn't be too deep. And they came and got me, and I even made Richard come into my yard and rescue my caravan because it was looking like, you know, the water was going to go up. And I, in the back of my head, I was like, well, if, you know, if the house gets flooded, at least I'll have somewhere to live. So, you know, good on him. He said that he'd go in and get it as long as I waited through and hooked it up. Yeah, underwater, which was challenging. In, but we managed and I got out to their place and ended up there for, I think, like a week or something.
John Milham (Host) · 19:19
So that first morning, that's like chaotic, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, when you had that first cup of tea after all of that chaos, what was that feeling like?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 19:31
Well, worried because I didn't know how high the water had gone up. Like, when we went back to my friend Jodie's place. Her, her house was up high, but there was a waterway that goes sort of through halfway down her backyard. It's a very big yard, but you could see the water rushing just really quickly down there. It was, it was, it was a bit intense seeing it like that. And, and then the levels, you could sit there and see it creeping up the yard closer and closer throughout the night. And so as far as I was concerned, if it's creeping like that, then it must be going into the house because it was already, you know, right there.
John Milham (Host) · 20:11
Yeah.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 20:12
But, uh, yeah, so I didn't get to go and see the house until, you know, halfway through the, the following day when things— the water had sort of calmed down enough that we could drive through it and, uh, and come and take a look. So I was very worried that first morning that I was going to go back to a bit of a disaster site.
John Milham (Host) · 20:32
Yeah. And what ha— what was it like?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 20:35
It, the water didn't get in. It, it was up to, you know, the very edge of the door and that it just got up to there and stopped. So I don't know how I got away with that. There was the, a back part of the house, which was an old veranda that had been enclosed, which is a bit lower down. And the water did sort of seep into that area and those walls. But I was sort of in the process of renovating that area anyway, so nothing of any value got damaged. And it's all hardwood, so it dried out. Fans on it for a few days, you know, it was okay. And there was junk all over the yard and it was all the other things that come along with the flood, but the house itself, you know, was okay.
John Milham (Host) · 21:24
Did you get over COVID too, by the way.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 21:27
So eventually.
John Milham (Host) · 21:30
So there, so yeah, thank goodness. So your house has been given a little bit of a reprieve, obviously. Were the goats okay?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 21:37
Well, yes. So the goats, had they been on my property at the time, that they would've been in a bit of trouble because I used to put them into the old shed at nighttime and that's on the lowest part of the property and they would've been, yeah, pretty deep into the water. Um, I had moved them. I think like the week before to a friend's property up the road for the wintertime so that they could just go out into a, um, into a paddock and have some, uh, plenty of feed there. So I didn't have to keep buying feed. So they were fine. Thank goodness. The goats probably didn't even realize what was happening. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 22:15
Wow. So the whole village, what was your vision of what happened to the village? Right? Because you're, you're bringing a unique perspective. You hadn't never seen anything like that. It's like you're fairly fresh to the village. What were you seeing? It must have been very disconcerting to look at, you know, the place underwater and then, you know, as the water receded.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 22:36
It was, yeah, it was pretty shocking the amount of damage that it had done. Most people left town the day after the flood. They took them out in buses and people with bigger 4x4s could could go out as well, right past my house, mind you. And they took them at a speed, so all these waves coming up and, and it was, yeah, you're getting wash damage.
John Milham (Host) · 23:04
It's not—
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 23:05
yeah, exactly. Yeah. But Jodie and, and, uh, and I and her family stayed in town. We couldn't go to an evacuation center because of COVID and, um, they were set up with, you know, enough off-grid stuff that we could, you know, safely and, and safely stay and hygienically stay as well. So yeah, it was, it was pretty— like, the water didn't go down for quite a long time. That whole first day, the water was still running, and, and it wasn't until the second day that you could see it sort of really start to, to go down, to recede. And it just left, you know, piles of junk everywhere. All the fence lines that you have just had debris pushed up against them. Sand, big piles of sand everywhere. And obviously some houses that had been, you know, pretty badly damaged as well. Yeah. Wow. So yes, not good.
John Milham (Host) · 24:03
You mentioned hygienically because that was a big issue too with, you know, septic tanks and things being involved in the flood.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 24:10
Yeah, there's no, there's no sewage here, sewage system. So everyone's on septic and they're all underwater. Our water got cut off well before the flood came through cuz the, the, um, that happened when the water breached the road out to Singleton. It also got the mains there. And so there was no water for, for quite a long time unless you had tank water. And, uh, and then even if you had tank water, you needed a, a generator to run your pump as well cuz there's no electricity. So yeah, bathroom, bathroom-wise, you needed to have some. They had a caravan with a bathroom on it that we could use, um, so that, you know, we weren't contributing to any hygiene issues, of course. But yeah, the water is not clean. You don't want to be, uh, going through it. You need to be able to clean yourself as well. So we're lucky that, you know, again, they had a shower on the caravan, so we're able to, to use that. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 25:04
Yeah.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 25:04
Wow.
John Milham (Host) · 25:05
You interesting because, you know, the one thing in a flood that you were desperate for was water, right? Clean water. So how did you manage with supplies and things while you are stuck in the village? Can't go to an evacuation center.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 25:21
My friends were very well stocked, thank goodness.
John Milham (Host) · 25:24
So sound like really handy friends to have down there.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 25:27
Very, very good friends. Yes. Yeah. And, and very shortly after, when, as soon as people were able to sort of come back into town, they opened up. Set up a bit of a crisis center in the community hall. And we're sort of lucky enough that we have people in the community that provided catering, you know, for anyone that needed a meal for, as you know, for quite some time after the floods. Obviously everything that you had in a fridge was damaged and gone 'cause they, you know, they've been off for quite a while and you didn't always have cooking. Facilities because electricity is gone. Or yeah, if you've got gas, I suppose you're all right. But, um, yeah, so we, we were fed really well from, uh, from the beginning. Monkey Place Catering, who operate just up the road, did really an amazing job with, uh, with catering. And then we had sausage sizzles from the, uh, community groups. And yeah, So that was good. And then they started bringing in supplies and set up almost like a, you know, a shop, I guess, in the community hall where you could go in and just pick up supplies of what you needed. Again, all like donated, so all free of charge. And so you could get the basics from there as well.
John Milham (Host) · 26:48
It sounds amazing, like a thing to go through. Was there, like we've talked about the, you know, like you've panicked when they got to your door. But was there any good about what you were going through?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 27:05
Not about the flood, no. But, but the, like, Broke community and the Broke village definitely sort of pulled together to help, help everyone out. So obviously some people were a lot more affected than others and almost straight away. Those who could help did help, and those who could donate donated. Um, those who could offer, you know, anything at all were, uh, were definitely out there trying to, to help the situation. So, uh, it was sort of brought home, like, what a, um, a caring community and village it is on the whole. You know, it was all positive from there. Obviously people are under stress and, and in a difficult situation, and so it doesn't always bring out the best in people. But I found that this, you know, from my experience anyway, it, it, I think it did bring out the best in a lot of, a lot of people. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 28:05
Did you, uh, do you, did you change your mind about where you were now living? What, um, you know, what shifted in your understanding of where you now live?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 28:15
Um, I think, yeah, I don't know. I think it just sort of— it maybe got to know people better quicker going through this crisis together because everything was based over at the community hall and everyone was, you know, eating meals together and, um, and you would just see people all the time and no one was working or, um what was school holidays, so there was no school, but everyone was around. And so I think that, yeah, definitely I sort of formed connections, formed more connections, and formed them quicker than perhaps, you know, I would have otherwise.
John Milham (Host) · 28:59
Yeah, everybody's in the same boat sort of thing, but not everybody had the same impact. How did that feel? Like, you know, like some people, you know, like yourself, there's fortune in the circumstance. You know, it's, you know, it's, it's a terrible experience, but there was a bit of luck in that it didn't go all the way through your house. But other people, you know, had different experiences. How did that go? How, you know, how did it feel looking at some people who had suffered a lot and lost?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 29:26
Yeah, awful and unfair. And you know what, like, what else can you say about it? It's Like I've got people that live meters from where I do who were, you know, had a far greater impact on their houses and their property than I did. And others that had, because we had these erosion holes, which I'm sure other people have told you about, but they're, you know, these huge holes. We were calling them sinkholes for a while. We were told that that was very wrong and we shouldn't call them sinkholes because they're not sinkholes, they're erosion holes.
John Milham (Host) · 30:00
Right.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 30:00
Yeah. So these erosion holes were opening up in just random, like you couldn't tell where they were gonna open up. We had one in my direct neighbor's backyard, which opened up 2 meters from my fence line and swallowed up a, a carport and a car. An entire car was in there as well as just, you know, the, a whole lot of other stuff that he had stored in that area between him and the neighbor closest as well. You know, it was, yeah, awful to see how some houses got, you know, far greater impacted than others. And then knowing as well the stories of some of the people, you know, some of the guys that were out all night with the fire brigade and the SES were in the water and putting their lives on the line, helping other residents out while their houses are destroyed.
John Milham (Host) · 30:59
Yeah.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 31:00
And so, yeah, it's pretty— yeah, it was very— yeah, it wasn't good seeing, you know, some of the really— the devastation that some people have gone through. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 31:14
Yeah. And of course, you mentioned the, you know, locals have always traditionally, you know, like joined together in crisis through SES and RFS. You know, Rotary and all these groups. How did you feel, you know, the community groups and emergency response groups did?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 31:33
Yeah, I'm not really sure actually. Like, I couldn't say enough good things about the SES and the fireys and the residents committee, the Broke Residents Committee. I think the council did what they could. I don't know how much more they could have done, to be honest. I know there was some people very unhappy with the way that they were handling the issue of stagnant water and the erosion holes and filling those in. There was a bit of a discussion about who was even responsible for those for a while. I don't, I honestly don't know how that got resolved in the end, but it did. But yeah, I'm not sure which organization is in charge of sending out the notices to residents and definitely that's something that's been discussed. A lot, and I know the residents committee has even talked about putting a register— they have put together a register so that the community can take into its own hands advising all the residents if something like this were to happen again. But the notice of this is quite serious and you should probably evacuate definitely came a bit late for most of us.
John Milham (Host) · 32:43
Yeah. So, and so obviously lessons learned. Yeah, um, individuals, uh, within that, you know, within the community. You've mentioned a number of the, you know, men who have, you know, who reached out and did work and stuff. How did it feel watching people like that step up?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 33:02
Um, yeah, I felt, I think, and a lot of people probably have the same reaction, like, I didn't, you know, I probably shouldn't ask for help because, um, it wasn't, you know, really you know, I didn't get it as bad as, as, um, look after the bloke down the road, I'm okay. And definitely there was a lot of people who, uh, who did the same. Um, but I did get the cadets from the, the army sent through, a whole bunch of people, because we obviously have the, uh, the training grounds just down the road, the military zone. Um, so they sent a whole bunch of guys up to just wander the, wander the streets and, and come in and, uh, help anyone that that needs it. So they helped me clear stuff out of my, out of my yard and, and get things out that I couldn't, you know, do on my own. There's the, the mines as well. They actually rostered, rostered people on to broke cleanup duty. That was their, their shift for the day. They were going to, you know, to their regular job, and they were put onto, to broke duty, and they would do the same. They would just wander around, um, and people could go to the community hall and put your name on a list and put a job down that you needed done. And the guys that were organizing that area, Mick McArdle of course, and the SES and plenty of other people in the community were there sending out these guys to do jobs that need to be done, ripping up carpet, you know, clearing out furniture from places, helping to clean up debris or demolish things. Um, there was, yeah, a lot of, a lot of work. And things like, they would organize as well, the, um, like the septic cleanup. You know, all of us had to have our septic tanks cleaned out, which is not a nice job, but they, they had, you know, a roster in there and they'd give you a call and say, hey, you know, we're sending someone over now. And yeah, there was, there was a lot of good organization in those days following.
John Milham (Host) · 35:00
Yeah, so many, um challenges involved, like, you know, the time at the crisis time, then afterwards almost, you know, that's, you know, when the adrenaline dies down, that can be even harder. What did you find out of this whole process? What was the hardest thing to deal with?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 35:21
Um, the, uh, the, it was, you know, as much as we got good support and we had a good community that came together, it's, it's still you know, a traumatic experience. And, um, and for quite some time afterwards, if it ever rained heavily, you would get a little bit of, you know, um, a bit of panic that, oh no, what if it happens again? Uh, I found that— and we were talking about a family that I know, you know, before we, um, before this, and trying to help them with their situation was probably the most challenging part of the whole thing. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 36:07
So this is a family in some ways slipped through the cracks, you know, like, you know, part of the community but didn't have all the same elements going. So, you know, how did that happen? Like, you know, you've got people who are outliers or who didn't fit the normal thing.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 36:24
As far as, well, I guess it's as far as getting, you know, real support when you lose everything. So there was, there was definitely support out there for homeowners. There was support for homeowners who had insurance, support for homeowners who didn't have insurance. There were emergency payments. You could, I think, even get, you know, some wages paid out to you as well. So there was a lot of emergency and crisis payments and help out there, but, if you didn't fit the criteria, then you could be left out of that pretty easily. So the, the family that I'm referring to, they have had lived here in Baroque for a few years at that stage. They were renting a place which got completely flooded to within, you know, 20 centimeters of the ceiling inside. They lost everything. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, unfortunately the father, like me, was sick at the time. And so yeah, they, they just didn't have the possibility to be prepared enough to, you know, to get everything together and get out. They evacuated to a house on higher ground just down from where their house was, and they could see their belongings floating down the river. Burned in front of them and couldn't do a thing about it. So they had 3 children, but because they didn't own a house, they weren't— they didn't, you know, they were just renting a place which they couldn't go back to and wasn't going to be rebuilt, you know, afterwards. And only one of them had been working in Australia enough so that he was eligible to get a payment, the emergency payment, but the rest of them weren't. Your kids. And the only option that was given to them was, uh, a crisis accommodation. I might, I might not remember exactly, but it was something along the lines of they were given 10 days accommodation in, uh, in a hotel. So they were put up in a motel in Singleton. They were given 2 rooms at a roadside motel in, you know, not the, not the nicest part of town., with no cooking facilities and, and 3 kids that were at school, you know, at the time, and they had lost, you know, everything. So while they were given those 10 days, they— there was no guarantee that they would be given— they had to apply for 10 days more each time it ran out, and it wasn't necessarily going to be in the same place or the same room. So every 10 days they would potentially have to move or, or not, but they didn't know. Not ideal. And then with no long-term solution, just nothing. They were just, you know, you, you're gonna have to find your own way out of it. So yeah, not, not good. Not good.
John Milham (Host) · 39:34
So you took on some advocacy for them? Is that how it, you know, like they're making progress?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 39:40
Yeah, just trying to help them out, you know, um, being Kiwis, they hadn't had as much, I guess, to do with the way that the systems work over here. And also they're just trying to, you know, in survival mode with the kids and the getting—
John Milham (Host) · 39:54
yeah, overwhelmed.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 39:55
Yeah, rebuilding their, uh, their lives and things. So, uh, I tried to help them out as much as I could with, um, uh, you know, calling around and seeing what options there were. Uh, but it became pretty clear pretty soon that that there really wasn't going to be much that, you know, the, the government systems could offer them. So they— at one stage, one of them asked, well, you know, can you get them a caravan or something? If we get them a caravan, would there be somewhere to park it? And I just said, well, yeah, they can, they can stay at my place. Um, in the end, they didn't even get the caravan. They couldn't get them a caravan, but we put the word out and there was a really lovely local family that lent them their caravan to live in, and that was set up on my block and they moved in there.
John Milham (Host) · 40:48
Yeah. Wow. Well, that's beautiful. Tragic, but it's— I'm glad that there are people like you in the area to watch out.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 40:57
Yeah. Well, I mean, I just gave them a place to park it and, and the guys up the road gave them the caravan and then the, the residents committee they did a lot of fundraising for the people who lost, you know, the most, for everyone really, you know. But I know that they helped this family in particular a lot with, you know, being able to rebuild their lives and replace some of the things that they'd lost. But it was left that, you know, to the community to look after people like that. And I'm sure there's probably other stories in Broke that are similar. This is just the one that I, yeah, that I know of.
John Milham (Host) · 41:37
Yeah, that's terrible. But I, you know, it's fantastic though, the community stood up.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 41:43
Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 41:44
The idea of losing everything after a flood, it must have been pretty wild to walk around, you know, and just see people's lives in a pile outside their house.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 41:56
Yeah. Awful. And the, the, The worst thing about it is when you get people coming in to do like tourism, like, wow. Yeah, it was, and being in a tourist area, it was also sort of, we couldn't stop them from coming through. They did close the streets that came into the village off to non-residents, but yeah, there was definitely people that came around just to sort of, you know, sticky beak a little bit. And it's not, not nice when you're, when, like you say, your entire household could be put out on the, on the verge. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 42:41
Did that, I can't imagine how challenging it must look. Yeah. Look at things, you know, the utility gone, right? Yeah. Like stuff that was good is now wet and not usable. And also precious things that, you know, most other people wouldn't value, but, you know, they had value for the individuals. So yeah, that they meant something to. How did, you know, how did that feel, right? As a group, have you discussed that? Like, would that— I've often heard people talk about the piles.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 43:12
Yeah, I— well, it was definitely, yeah, a topic of discussion for a while because there was people coming in and going through the piles to try and like salvage things, which was— some people looked at it almost like a, you know, council cleanup and they're like, well, if it's out there, you know, you can reuse and recycle and that's all good. But it was not the— yeah, not the time or place to be doing that. It was probably contaminated. If it was in the floodwater, you wouldn't want it, you know, anyway. But also if it's your personal items that you are putting out there, not because you want to get rid of it, no, but because of, you know, this horrible tragedy that's, that's happened. And, you know, you've lost these items, you put them out there purely because they need to be taken away and cleaned up and, and, and so that you can start, start again. And then having people rifle through that is very uncomfortable.
John Milham (Host) · 44:09
It's not—
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 44:09
yeah, not the way it should be. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 44:13
So that obviously leads to the idea of recovery. What do you think recovery's been for you and for those around you in the village?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 44:22
I think that it took a long time for things to be cleaned up. It took— and that goes back to the piles as well. It took a long time for those piles to go away. And it's very difficult to start thinking about what comes next when you're looking at the remnants of what was before every day. And that goes for the piles, the erosion holes, you know, the car sticking out of a hole in in essentially my backyard here for weeks afterwards. The stagnant water, which became a real issue because people were pumping it, wanting to pump it out of their properties, but they would pump it out of their properties, it would end up on someone else's property. Or, you know, it was the cleaning up process was a very sort of drawn out long process. Yeah, it's, it's been a different journey, I think, for everyone. Some people obviously had far more traumatic experiences than, than others. And I know that I was having a really hard time thinking about going back to work afterwards and having to talk to tourists, you know, quite soon after the floods because I sort of knew that there would be a lot of well-intentioned questions about, oh, you know, how did you go? Or how was it? Are you okay? Oh, what happened? Which you understand why people want to ask these questions, but it would have meant me, you know, talking about the destruction of my neighbors' houses and lives. And, and I, I didn't end up going back to work there. I found another job.
John Milham (Host) · 46:00
So yeah, well, that's a significant trigger, isn't it?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 46:05
Yeah, I'm sure I would have got there in the end. I mean, I was— those conversations I, I wanted to have with the people here. That, you know, also experienced it. And, and there was a lot of that. I think that we— and maybe not everyone, but my, my experience with the, um, you know, the people that I sort of encountered was, um, wanting to share stories and wanting to hear other people's stories. And I think it helps. There was also, you know, a bit of a, a divide initially between the people that were out of the village and people in the village and a divide between people who thought, uh, you know, that help was focused in one area and not in another area. It was, yeah, but I think that after the sort of, yeah, the initial chaos, that that got cleared up in, in, um, there was community meetings and, and a lot of discussion about that, yeah, afterwards.
John Milham (Host) · 47:05
So the telling the story What do you think the Broke story will be in the future?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 47:12
I don't know. Good question. Broke is changing. It's always, I mean, since, since I've been here and from what I've heard from people that have lived here for a lot longer than I have, it's, it's gone through a lot of, a lot of change. I think it's growing and there's, you know, a bit of movement and in properties and population and I don't know, but I hope that, and I don't wanna say if, because I think it's a question of when it happens again, that it will be managed differently before the flood happens rather than, you know, because like there's a lot of, there was a lot of good management afterwards and I believe that we probably fared better than other communities that have gone through big floods. Especially in during that year when the floods up north happened. I think that we probably were lucky in that sense that we had more services directly surrounding our community that got in straight away and helped us out. But yeah, I think I hope that, you know, our early warning system that's been set up still, I'm not really sure where that's at at the moment. You probably know more than I do with that one. I hope that, yeah, that there'll be better prevent— prevention in the future. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 48:35
Yeah.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 48:35
I think there's now, like, they know, everyone knows. You know, even I just got a new hot water system put in and I was like, oh, we need to, you know, you need to make sure that it's put in above a certain level because it'll flood and I don't want that to get damaged. Like, it's always in the back of your head that whatever we do from here on, we want to make sure that we try to minimize any future damage, I guess.
John Milham (Host) · 49:01
Yeah, that's a really interesting perspective. You know, like the lived experience of your flood will be present in the decisions you make about it.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 49:09
Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 49:10
And yeah, and I think there are lessons learned, you know, from the stories. So, but that brings me to ask, just as we wrap up after what has been a wonderful discussion, thank you. I just think, what do you now know about yourself, about maybe Australia? But you've been, you know, you went through something big and what do you now know about that, about yourself as a result?
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 49:38
I guess that like in the end, if, and it's no, it's too cliché to say that if the stuff in the house gets damaged, then eventually, eventually it'd be awful, but eventually it'd be okay again. I think that, you know, looking after the people around you and being looked after in the first few days afterwards and then being able to look after or help look after other people as well, that was the, you know, easily the most important thing to do at that time.
John Milham (Host) · 50:14
I think that's a beautiful insight. So, Carly, thank you so much. There's so much gold in this conversation. I really appreciate it. And I just want to acknowledge acknowledge you and, you know, the work you've done subsequent to what is just such a challenging scenario. And congratulations on getting through. And thank you for sharing your story. It's really a wonderful opportunity to hear a story of what I think is definitely a local hero story.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 50:48
Well done. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Beyond the Deluge about the 2022 floods in Broke and the Hunter Valley.
John Milham (Host) · 51:03
If anything in this conversation has had a triggering effect, please seek support and find someone who can help keep you safe. Please share the show to your friends, family, and colleagues so we can help more people with their recovery from natural disaster. If you'd like to find out more about Kintsugi Heroes and our other podcasts, please head to kintsugiheroes.com.au. Our theme song was provided by Colin Lilly.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 51:27
Thanks to Matthew Bliss for editing and production and to John Millum for hosting the conversations. And most of all, thank you to the community of Broke and the Hunter Valley for sharing their lived experience with us. We'll see you next week in Beyond the Deluge. Only when it's broken.
John Milham (Host) · 51:52
Only when it's broken. When it hits you in the middle of the night and the truth burns so bright. Only when it's broken. Only when it's broken.
Carly Dawson (Guest) · 52:13
Take pride in those cries. It's only for tonight, and then you rise. Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken.
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