Beyond the Deluge
Chris Brooks · 63 min
From Army recruit to pub custodian, Chris Brooks weathered bushfires, a pandemic, and the worst flood in 70 years to keep the heart of Wollombi beating — and never once considered giving up.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
Chris Brooks discovered Wollombi Tavern in the early 1980s on military runs, fell in love with the town's country lifestyle, and bought the pub in 2017. What followed was a cascading series of disasters: bushfires in 2019 and 2020, two COVID lockdowns, a flood in March 2022, and then the worst flood in 70 years that July. The water came up to the top of the pub doors, surpassing the 1949 flood mark by a meter. Everything floated away. The floodwater was toxic because septic tanks went under. The kitchen was coated in a slippery layer of deep-fat fryer oil. Yet Chris and the community cleaned the pub out in two weeks and reopened.
What Chris learned about Wollombi struck him deeply. The name itself means the meeting of the waters, an Aboriginal word reflecting the convergence of two creek systems that make the town a natural flood zone. The pub sits at the lowest point in town. When it burned down in the 1950s, the community rebuilt it in six weeks because it mattered that much to them. The tavern is the focal point of the village's economy and identity, and people showed up without being asked. Army recruits finishing their course climbed into overturned ice machines and removed pelicans from roofs. Volunteers came to pick rubbish off fences. His wife was hit harder by the flood than by the fires, particularly when tourists showed up in expensive cars to gawk while the community was cleaning up.
Chris is now deputy captain of the local RFS, acutely aware of the strain on volunteers who put in 12-hour shifts unpaid, often losing money while losing work. He has come to accept that records will be broken and new floods will come. Living in Wollombi means accepting this. Yet he would not leave, and neither would anyone else who loves the place. The challenge now is that property prices have climbed so high a young family trying to buy the general store would need 3.5 to 4 million dollars just to start.
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