River Murray Recovery Stories
Ivan Smith · 46 min
When the 2022 River Murray floods threatened to silence an entire town, one retired mechanic-turned-communications expert quietly built a solar-powered radio network that kept emergency services connected — and then went door to door to hold his neighbours together.
Ivan Smith was born and bred in Renmark, a town on the Murray River where his grandfather and father worked as woodcutters. He spent decades as a motor mechanic before moving into electronics and radio communications, eventually working on the government emergency services network across South Australia. When the 2022 floods threatened the Riverland, Ivan's property four kilometers out of town and on higher ground meant he wasn't facing displacement. That safety freed him to do something else: watch his neighbors and community carefully, and help them prepare.
Ivan saw a critical vulnerability. The town's power lines all ran from a single substation across the river flats. If one pole fell in the flood, the town would lose power, then phone networks, then all communication. He didn't just identify the problem. He brought a solution to council: two independent, solar-powered radio networks that would work even if the main power grid failed. One system let emergency managers coordinate with locals who had CB radios in their trucks. The other gave council a private management network. He borrowed over 50 handheld radios from the local Dinghy Club and set everything up before the water came. The poles never fell, but the networks were ready.
While council and contractors reinforced the flood banks, Ivan went door to door with neighbors who lived outside the protected areas. He helped an elderly couple save not just their paperwork but her sewing equipment, explaining that protecting what she valued would matter for her mental health when cleanup began. He rode the flood banks each morning with the inspection team, watching debris and destruction pile into fruit growers' properties downstream. He saw livelihoods drown. Two years later, vines and pistachio trees still haven't recovered. Ivan believes his generation has a responsibility to lead younger people through crisis with a steady, positive example. That's how a town holds itself together when the water recedes and the real work begins.
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