Melissa O'Toole · 47 min
When the worst flood in 70 years swallowed Broke Village, a long-time local and her family discovered that a coffee shop could become the unlikely lifeline holding a shattered community together.
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On July 6th, 2022, the worst flood in 70 years swept through Broke Village. Melissa O'Toole and her husband Paul, who had lived in the area for nearly 30 years, returned from a medical appointment in Newcastle to find Wallumbi Brook rising faster than they had ever seen it. When the SES ordered evacuation, the water was already knee-deep and moving with such force that Melissa had to grip the stair rail and trees just to walk a few metres. As the creek kept rising through the night, Paul desperately salvaged a timber suitcase packed with 28 years of their children's school paintings, report cards, and photos. The family made it to the roof. By morning, the water had subsided, but it had left devastation: the granny flat overturned, two massive packs of timber moved 50 metres by sheer force of water, belongings strewn across fences and paddocks for months.
What happened next revealed something about Melissa and her community. When the hall became a gathering place where Monkey Place Catering served food and neighbours came to sit, talk, and help each other through the shock, Melissa found herself going there almost daily. She helped serve meals, listened to people she had lived near for two decades but never really known. When her son's coffee shop, Magoonie's, opened in September, it inherited that same purpose. Now, nearly two years later, regulars still come to sit for hours. Melissa learned something about herself through the flood: she is a giver, someone who likes nurturing and helping others. The experience also deepened her pride in Broke itself. Yet reminders remain. The creek level is checked after every rain. Remnants still catch in fences. Some families are not yet back in their homes. When heavy rain came again recently, the raw feelings returned, and she found herself tearing up at the thought of it happening once more.
“it was almost like medicine you'd go inside the if you needed clothes or food or there was a board and there was what houses were going to have the pump out system done and who's got a sinkhole and who needs this”
“a month ago the rain did come again and it's probably been the first real big rain since the floods and it brought a lot of raw feelings back”
“we'd never intended on on this being such a social hub for locals but people like oh how you going Tony oh hey Betty how are you and it's still like that nearly two years down the track”
The hero, today
When Melissa saw the water moving so fast she had to grip the stair rail and trees to walk three metres, it showed her something she had never seen before and never wanted to see again. The hall became a gathering place where Melissa went almost every day during recovery, and she describes it as almost like medicine because people could come for food, clothes, support, and talk, or just sit and think. Magoonie's Coffee Shop inherited the role of community hub from the hall after the flood, and Melissa sees regulars like Bob sitting for hours, and still has conversations with people who weren't in their homes yet when the shop opened. Melissa learned that she is a giver and someone who likes nurturing and fussing over people, and the flood broadened her eyes to what a special community Broke actually is. People she had never met in 20 years of living in Broke became good friends through the flood and recovery, showing her that something bad had to happen to reveal what her neighbours and community were truly like. Nearly two years later, big rain brings raw feelings back, and Melissa still checks the creek level, still sees remnants in the fence, and knows there are families not yet back in their homes.
Yes. Melissa O'Toole 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.
When Melissa saw the water moving so fast she had to grip the stair rail and trees to walk three metres, it showed her something she had never seen before and never wanted to see again.
The hall became a gathering place where Melissa went almost every day during recovery, and she describes it as almost like medicine because people could come for food, clothes, support, and talk, or just sit and think.
Magoonie's Coffee Shop inherited the role of community hub from the hall after the flood, and Melissa sees regulars like Bob sitting for hours, and still has conversations with people who weren't in their homes yet when the shop opened.
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. To find out more about this podcast, head to kintsugiheroes.com.au. 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. It's only through connection and empathy that there can be a path to recovery. These are stories of trauma and can be confronting. If you find they have a triggering effect, please reach out to someone who can help keep you safe. Join in as John takes you beyond the deluge with Kintsugi Heroes. So welcome listeners back to another episode of Kintsugi Heroes: Stories from the Flood, the Beyond the Deluge. But coming from beyond the deluge today is our good friend and broke local who has, you know, her perspective on on the floods, her story on the floods from what is now the hub of the village, right? The coffee shop. What is it? Motti's, Melissa? So welcome, Melissa O'Toole.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 01:45
Hi, how are you, John? Thanks for having me. No, the coffee shop is our son's and it's called Magoonie's Coffee Shop.
John Milham (Host) · 01:51
Magoonie's. Lovely. Fantastic. And I hear great things. I'm looking forward to grabbing a coffee up there soon. So, and it's interesting because the coffee shop now has almost inherited the role from the hall that the hall had during the floods. And now the hall and the coffee shop, the central community hub, plays an important part in the life of the village. So it's— so before we get into that sort of journey, how about giving us a little bit of background? You've been in Broke for 30 years. So yeah, how— tell us a little bit about your journey through to the beginning of the floods and to now.
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Melissa learned that she is a giver and someone who likes nurturing and fussing over people, and the flood broadened her eyes to what a special community Broke actually is.
This conversation includes a town and a coffee shop, nearly 30 years building a life in broke, the day the rain came, water that moves like nothing she's seen, the roof as a plan and the suitcase of their children's lives.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 02:31
Yep. Well, we moved nearly 30 years ago with our 3 children, um, to Broke, and then we had baby number 4. Had a couple of businesses. My husband's a teacher at the local school in Singleton, St. Catharines. Uh, we opened an antique shop many years ago, and hence moving forward, the reason that we took on this Bonnie's Old Garage where we, where we are now, we were gonna open another antique shop, which we did start out doing when we first opened, but we've now turned it into a a cellar door, but wanted to go down that road again. And yeah, the, so yeah, pretty much 28 years of our children all going to the little Broke school.
John Milham (Host) · 03:13
Beautiful.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 03:14
They've all ventured out. We told them all to get the hell outta Broke and experience the world, which they haven't quite experienced the world, but they've got outta Broke and one's come home to run this coffee shop. Yeah, I've worked in local businesses in the area. I've worked for Margan Wines for 18 years, have a catering business and pretty much Broke village people.
John Milham (Host) · 03:35
Yeah, that's beautiful. So creating business in Broke and being part of the sort of central, both commercial and community kind of side of the village. What, what, what was the, the best thing about Broke for you?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 03:51
I think bringing our children up here, creating, I always say to my children, you create lifelong friends when your children go to school. That's where you meet your long-term friends, which we still have in the area. It's just been lovely bringing them up in the country on some land, growing our own veggies, having a few animals, and just having that country village spirit, which for us took over really after the floods. There were a lot of people that we didn't really know, living a bit out of town, and then our children going into St. Catherine's College.
John Milham (Host) · 04:28
Mm-hmm.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 04:29
You sort of lose a bit of that contact and people come and go, but once the floods hit, we met some really special people that we've become good friends with.
John Milham (Host) · 04:39
Yeah. So that brings us of course to the 6th of July. So how did the floods sort of roll out for you?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 04:49
Well, our family home is just on the outskirts of the village. It's on a couple of acres on the Wallumbi Brook. So we've been used to over the years having the water level come up. Then when the old bridge was in broke, which goes across to Milbridale Road, it was a, a low rickety bridge and it'd all be like, oh, we'll be cut off, we'll be cut off. And everyone's gotta go around the long way to town. And when our 4 children left home, we turned our family home, which is called Red Tractor Retreat now, and we live in a little humpty down the bush down near Wallumbi, which we love. The first part of the road that normally goes under flood is the road that heads down towards Windmark Wines, Crinklewood, towards Wallumbi. That day of the flood, we had a specialist appointment in Newcastle that we couldn't cancel for Paul. The rain had been coming not a lot of days beforehand, but 24 hours and pretty heavy, and you're sort of like, "Oh, is it going to go over?" We got to Newey, and I remember ringing Kenny in the fire brigade and said, "How are we going, mate? Do you think we'll get back home?" He said, "Oh, you're gone. You're you won't be going back home down towards Wollombi.
John Milham (Host) · 05:56
Wow.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 05:56
And we're like, wow, that, that's pretty quick. We had some guests checking into the guest house and we really weren't worried about that too much thinking, yeah, it's not gonna come up. Just the one road or get blocked off and sort of had the appointment, got it out the way quickly, got back on the phone to Kenny. He's like, yeah, no, you're definitely gone under, but it's, it's coming up quick, Mel. It's coming up. And I'm like, righto. All right, we'll get home and talk to these guests. And as we were coming from Bacolben into Broke, there's a floodplain and a lot of flats, and we just were like, oh my God, look at the water. The road, Paul was like, this is gonna go under soon. We, we've never seen this under.
John Milham (Host) · 06:35
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 06:35
And this was Singleton Road to Bacolben. And by then the adrenaline starts settling in a bit. It's like, oh, I wonder how much it's gonna come up. It's still been another 24 hours or 2 days. You sort of, You get on Facebook and you talk to people at Wallumbi and how far is it coming up yet? Coming up yet. So we went to the guesthouse and this van pulls up with these two big dogs and these four kids and these two ladies and we're like, oh, we've got a fair bit of water coming up, but you know, never floods in Broke at all. Just you'll get maybe the road to Wallumbi cut off. It's pretty much gone, but you'll be right. They got their red wine and they're all excited. Oh, we're not going anywhere. We've just come out of COVID We've been hanging for this trip. We're just going to get settled. And our neighbor next door, Benny, Benny and Jase have got a guest house and they said, oh Mel, there's no one in this weekend. You and Paulie, you're cut off. You just stay here and just pretend you're, you know, having a night away. So we went into town and got some cheese and wine and goodies and like, oh, I wonder what's going to happen and wonder how far it's going to come up and wonder how long, you know, and go over to the guests and the SES pull up. You got to evacuate. Like, what? No, the water hasn't come up yet. We walk down the back. So we've got our property and there's a 14-meter drop.
John Milham (Host) · 07:48
Wow.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 07:49
To the brook.
John Milham (Host) · 07:50
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 07:51
And it's only ever lapped the top of the property, come up that 14 meters. That was the Pascha Bulka weekend from my memory. It's only ever been that high. And guests were like, we're like, nah, she'll be right. We're in the house next store. It'll be right. We'll just— we'll keep posted. It's all good. And sort of 3 o'clock comes and SES are like, no, you got to go. And we're like, what are you talking about? We come on, girls, we'll go and walk down the back. And it was knee-deep. Well, that sent us all into a whirlwind. We've got a granny flat down the back on the brook, and Hugh, who was renting that, had just pulled up and was like, I've got to start throwing stuff in. I just got to get what I can. It's coming in a bit more. We sort of started panicking and we said to the guests, look, you know, I think we've never seen it sort of up like this. Maybe you should get on your merry way. And they're like, we've had a couple of bottles of wine, we've just unpacked everything. And we're like, well, put it this way, it's either you pack up now or we could all be spending the night together in the guest house.
John Milham (Host) · 08:56
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 08:57
So they all packed up and believe it or not, we only found out a few hours later, they headed on the only road that was open to Singleton and within a few minutes of them getting up the road, the road washed away and the power lines went down. Wow. So, um, basically then we started going down the back shed. We've got a new shed, and my dad and Paul's mum had passed away the previous year, and we had a lot of furniture and their belongings down there. Yeah, we were just starting to lift everything on top as high as we could, not thinking, well, how fast it's going to go up, not thinking it's going to go as far as it did.
John Milham (Host) · 09:33
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 09:34
And then nightfall started to— it started to get dark and the water was still rising and we were wading through it, still moving. We'd parked the cars down the front of the driveway, which was one of the highest points, and it was just starting to lap on the step to get into my Pajero. So we were just sort of edging the car along. We didn't think about an old collector's car that Paul had down in the back shed that It's gone. Then we got into a bit of a kerfuffle and thought, oh my God, this pod down the back, this hasn't been tied down, it's on piers, but Paul can see that's just going down the creek.
John Milham (Host) · 10:14
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 10:14
So I race up the fire shed saying, anyone got torches? Power's gone out. What are we going to do? We think we're going to lose this pod. Oh, and they were just— no one really knew. What was going on and how far the water was going to go. We're like, we don't have torches, we don't have anything. They just said, look, Mel, go back home. A lot of the people have already been evacuated on buses. We'll just keep going past up and down and you'll see the fire truck and you'll see the lights. It'll— we'll just be going up and down to reassure us. We had a plan next door, Paul and Benny, We're pretty close to our neighbors and Benny and Paul were like, righto, what's the plan? And all of a sudden I see ladders going up on one level of the veranda onto the roof. And I said, what are you doing? And he said, this is the plan.
John Milham (Host) · 11:06
This is the escape plan. You're going to spend the night on the roof if you have to.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 11:10
Well, we had to because the water was coming across the paddock and across our pool and we're just like, all right, well, we're a bit of an island at the moment. We'll just wait and see. By this time it was probably only up half a meter.
John Milham (Host) · 11:22
Right.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 11:22
This is about 5, 6 o'clock at night. So we just put the fire on and settled in. I was on the lounge. Paul was just, um, constantly doing the rounds of the veranda. He had a, had a stick and he was just measuring basically where it was, the level was going. And I remember at 2 o'clock in the morning, Benny, Paulie, I don't think it's moved much anymore. Nope. Hasn't moved much here. Nope. It's pretty much the same here. I think it was about 2 o'clock that it had stopped and it lapped the veranda of our main family home.
John Milham (Host) · 11:57
Wow.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 11:58
So we, we have a retreat as, as our family grew, we did as you do, the kids retreat out the back. It went under a meter. We didn't even expect that. Beds, carpet, uh, it went through our pod and it went through all of our, um, sheds. Yeah. Yeah. Lost. Lost a lot. So all, all your, um, items from your father and, you know, your mother-in-law and, and so on, they at risk or gone or, um, some of the furniture was sellable, but yeah, towards the, the next couple of days when the water went down, there were slippers and CDs and shoes and, um, all sorts of items caught in the fence in between us and Benny's.
John Milham (Host) · 12:42
Right.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 12:42
But yeah, nothing, yeah, nothing too sentimental gone. We managed to save some of Paul's mother's really nice furniture and it went up high on some of the tables, but we lost a lot of camping gear and mowers and, yeah, oh God knows what, piles and piles of stuff that was out front.
John Milham (Host) · 13:02
Someone told me about, you know, one of the moments that they just realized that how challenging the whole thing was, was when they were just watching how fast the stuff they recognized flowed past from some, from the neighbor's house and property and so on.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 13:20
See, we're set back a fair bit from the road, so mainly what we saw was going on in our own front yard. But I'll say in the time when the water was coming up quite high, would've been over my knees and I'm quite tall. I would walk down the front stairs and hang onto the stair rail and then walk about 3 meters to grab onto the pool fence because the water was moving so fast towards the road. Wow. And then to get to the car, we would just hang onto trees to the car. And then, yeah, you couldn't walk from the car back to the house without hanging onto things or it'd knock you over. Yeah. Yeah, it was unbelievable. Something like I've never seen before. Wow.
John Milham (Host) · 14:04
And you sound very, um, like I love the, uh, you know, the smile, the wry smile you have about this experience, but was it scary?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 14:14
Uh, yeah, it was 2 years ago. Um, yeah, I, I probably don't look scared or upset now, but I remember going down to the fire shed. Look, you gotta remember that this adrenaline is pumping the whole way through. Like you wouldn't believe. And I'm probably a bit like that now talking about it, but oh yeah, there were, there were lots of tears. I, I have a memory of, um, when the water was coming up in the afternoon after the guests had left, I was on the veranda just, just thinking, what am I gonna do? What are we gonna move? How far is this gonna come up? Not expecting what it did at all. And I heard this almighty noise from my husband and his dad died of a heart attack and I've always got that on mind and I, it was just Ah, ah, I'm looking down the back in between the shed. Honestly, it was a noise like he was having a heart attack. And I looked down the back of the trees and he's got this massive big going away suitcase like what they used to have on the train trips out west. You know, packed all your stuff in it. Yeah, timber, timber and leather. And he's got it almost on his shoulders. Nearly killing him. And he's just about crying, going, I gotta get this, I gotta, I gotta, you gotta help me. And it's our, it's got our 4 children's everything through school. Oh, you know, the, all the paintings and, um, report cards and little things they've made and photos. And yeah, and he just, he, I don't know what he was going to do, but it was No matter what, it got back into the house and it was on a table and it was in pride of place. It was not, it was not gonna get wet. Wow.
John Milham (Host) · 15:56
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 15:57
Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 15:58
I love that the, the effort he made to save the mementos and stuff.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 16:02
That's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you wish you could go back and think, you know, could I have done more? Cuz we're only discussing that in the car today. He said, why didn't we think about the cars in the shed? You know, I had an old collector's BMW that wasn't insured and he's got an old VW Karmann Ghia and There were too many other things to think about, you know, like the cars in front of us that we drive every day, you know, are these— and I don't know how they didn't get flooded. They almost went into the floor pan but didn't. And, you know, at this stage we've got no power, so we've got no lights, we've got no mobile phone reception, we've got no water. We'd managed to have dinner, I think, and we'd lit the fire and That was pretty much, you know, us for the night.
John Milham (Host) · 16:48
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 16:50
Knowing that everyone, I don't know, knowing that everyone else was in that situation, you were just, just doing what you had to do there and then.
John Milham (Host) · 16:59
I love that idea. Like at the time, right, you know, it's choices of expedience and, you know, the priorities are very simple, like safety and yourself and those you care about. Down the track though, I think with a flood, like you, you I've heard mention of the decoration of all the fences in the area. And I, it must be interesting cuz you would see every now and then some sort of, ah, you know, so, you know, some, something that jogged your memory or sort of, you know, reminded you that stuff was lost, right? Stuck on a fence somewhere, a shoe or a box or something.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 17:36
Probably one of the most memorable stories I have is Once the road was opened a week or two down the track, you, we'd drive to Wallumbi one day and we'd be looking up, there's a fridge, there's a fridge up in the trees, like way above our heads.
John Milham (Host) · 17:54
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 17:54
There's a bra, there's someone's sheep. And, and oh yeah, unbelievable. Round the village mainly it was, um, just the grass line and, and all paddock stuff. And the fence between us and Benny and Jase next door just got completely flattened. And that's where a lot of, um, dad and Paul's mum's bits and pieces were. We didn't really tackle that for a long time. I remember there was so much stuff. We actually have, um, my husband builds tables in his spare time, and we had two big packs of timber, probably, um, 25, 30 meters long, almost floorboard type timber, and a meter high. Wide.
John Milham (Host) · 18:40
Wow.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 18:41
Probably a couple of ton.
John Milham (Host) · 18:42
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 18:44
The force of the water moved them, both of those timber packs, a good 50 meters until they just hit a tree and that's where they still are.
John Milham (Host) · 18:52
Why? Wow.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 18:53
That's, yeah, unbelievable the force. And when we went down the back and opened the pod granny flat, it was like it, it had been tipped upside down. The fridge was upside down. There was a wine fridge, lounge chairs, beds, just— I can't— I've never seen anything like it in my life. It was just— and the door was closed. The water just got in those cracks, and God knows what it did when it was swirling around, the force of it. Many days later, there was just, like I said, mainly in the fences, so much stuff built up. But we didn't— that was just something you didn't even want to tackle at the time. That was something where one day there was just army people that just turned up and said, "Come on, we're here to help." I just said to my husband, "We can't do all this ourselves." The family had come up and helped us clear out the sheds and put everything out the front like the NRMA had asked us to and just rip up carpet and the beds in the retreat. But thinking about the the stuff in the paddocks and up against the fences. It wasn't really a thought. We'll get to that. But I was just like, these men are here, there's 20 of them. And they just went in and just cleared out the fences and all the debris and tried to help out on, on the 3 acres for us, which was a great help.
John Milham (Host) · 20:17
Yeah, that's amazing. I, I love that idea of all the, um, a range of post-flood timber, uh, furniture.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 20:26
Now, yeah, it hasn't yet, but anyway.
John Milham (Host) · 20:30
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 20:30
Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 20:30
Well, you know what, when it's dried out, you can say this is the flood.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 20:34
We might keep it there.
John Milham (Host) · 20:35
Flood furniture. Amazing stuff. And of course, you were experiencing that in your guest house. How was the property?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 20:46
We couldn't get down there for about 10, 7 to 10 days from memory. We live on the side of a mountain down there, so doesn't really flood, but, um, the driveway did get very wet. And I have a funny story. When we did go down there, I remember driving up the driveway, and quite a few weeks beforehand we'd had a lot of rain as well, and we had a, a, um, pile of blue metal delivered. And I can remember going around the blue metal like I had before the this amount of rain and thinking this will be all right, I'll just try and go over it. And it was a big pile. I thought, no, I won't do that and I'll go around. Just sunk, sunk, sunk. The Jarrow, the floor plan. And I thought I tried my hardest to get it backwards and forwards and I, I put some rocks under it and tried to reverse out and I was, I was dead stuck. Like, oh geez, I'm in trouble. So I remember racing up to the house and got a bottle of wine, thought I have a couple of glasses because I'm in big trouble. So my husband comes home in his old Land Rover and I'm sitting on the deck looking down at him on the driveway coming up, and he does exactly what I did. He drives up to the metal, he goes back, he thinks, oh, I'll go around. He went around and he sunk right next to me. We had both cars sunk in the mud and we had to get, um, Adrian, a mate, um, in town. He's got an excavating business. Mate, can you come and help us? We need— this was after Paul tried to get him out with the tractor. Can you come and pull us both out? We both bogged. So yeah, just there. Fortunately, um, lost all of our food in the fridge, but nothing, nothing terrible really. No, just mainly the, um, the family home and guest house.
John Milham (Host) · 22:39
So 10 days you, you got through the, the, the water's done its worst, and of course you're in the middle of a village that has just been smashed by that whole experience. What was that like?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 22:56
Yeah, really sad. Yeah, sad driving around seeing good friends couple of families in particular with a house full of kids with all of their belongings and everything on the side of the road. And that was the hard thing in the village. And we're a tourist town. We of course didn't have accommodation bookings for quite a few months trying to clean up, and that was least of our worries. We didn't really want anyone in the town coming and looking at everything and being in the way. It was sort of We sort of wanted to cocoon it, you know. We were all the main hub was, and the best thing out of it really for me was how this hub became the local meeting point at the hall where Monkey Place Catering set up and we all went down and we'd do Ross's. I'd go next door and help Jase, who's got a couple, one little, she had a little boy and she was pregnant, I think, or one on the way. 'What do you need, Jase? Let's get in and do some prep and help out.' And then we'd sort of take turns and have a roster serving the food. And everyone just went— you went down there and you'd just sit there and, you know, there'd be a young, young woman just on the chair with the kids, just sort of thinking. And, you know, someone would be talking to someone else that hasn't talked to them for a while, and, 'How are you going? What do you need?' And there's a couple of people in particular that were living in a caravan park down the road near where I live now. I've never met this gentleman before, and I still see him in our coffee shop. He'd just sit there and he just wanted to be a part of things, and it was just so nice. Every day he was there waiting for the barbecue to light up the barbecue or serve the sausages. You just got to know people that I've never known in 20 years in the village. A lot of people stick to themselves. There's a lot of older people that have got their set of friends. The camaraderie and just the pulling together of all the different sorts of people that live in Broke is— there can be the stories and books. Well, there is a book coming out, but even after we were supposed to open the coffee shop here at the time, around the time that the floods hit, We didn't get much damage in here. It flooded in the house next door, so we got a lot of runoff. So we got mainly mud in here that we had to clean up. We thought, we won't open. This is not the time to open while we're all struggling a lot. A lot of people struggling a lot more than we were that didn't have a house to live in. So we put it on the back burner for September. But I think it was about a month that meeting place was at the hall. And like I said, it was just— you'd get up and you'd you come on, let's go down. Let's probably meet more so than Paul. I'd go down at least every day just to have a chat, have a coffee, help out in the catering, and just, it was almost like medicine. You'd go inside the hall if you needed clothes or food, or there was, you know, there was a board and there was what houses were gonna have the pump out system done and who's got a sick call and who needs this and Yeah, it just shows you what a village is all about, really. That's what got a lot of people through, I think. Then once that folded, of course, that couldn't go on forever. We'd never intended on this being such a social hub for locals, but people were like, "Oh, how you going, Johnny?" "Oh, hey, Penny, how are you?" It's still like that nearly 2 years down the track. Bob will come out of the bush. He lives on his own and he does his own thing, and he'll come and sit on the end of the table in his seat and sit here for 2 hours. He'll have 3 coffees and he'll chat to Billy, and then Betty will come in, he'll have a chat to her. And it's just so nice to be a part of, you know, to continue that. Because in, in Broke, there's Cellar Doors and a couple of restaurants, there's the Broke Village Store, but there's nowhere like a coffee shop where people people can just come and sit and watch people come and go and chat to them if they want or leave when they want.
John Milham (Host) · 27:08
I love that. It almost inherited that energy from, you know, from the community coming together in the hall and you inherited that for the coffee shop. I think that's a wonderful kind of—
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 27:21
we did. Timing was unbelievable. And I also think it's helped some people too. Through it. There's been a couple of families that still aren't in their house. Yeah. And back then, when the coffee shop opened, they spent a lot of time here. Like I said, they can come and go when they want, but it was still somewhere for a bit of network and support. And, "Are you all right today, mate? Do you need a hand or you need some food or you need a hand with that? How's it all going?" So yeah, we've been very fortunate.
John Milham (Host) · 27:58
I could see the impact, you know, it had on you, obviously, you know, you being involved in the hall and then, you know, building the business back up and so on. How do you think the community has gone? You know, how have they managed?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 28:21
I think a lot, a lot of people are still suffering. You don't really know because, you know, there's still— we still don't see a lot of the community in the coffee shop, you know. Not, not everyone's coffee drinkers and not everyone wants to come and talk to people, and everyone's got their own life and everyone's busy. But, um, yeah, I don't personally know about everyone that's going on, but I will say about a month ago the rain did come again and it's probably been the first real big rain since the floods and it brought a lot of raw feelings back.
John Milham (Host) · 28:57
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 28:58
And since talking to a few of the locals the other day, I sat down at this table that I'm at, I was talking to Robbie and Mike and a couple of them and it's like, yeah, how'd you go last, last couple of weeks? And we were all like, yeah, you know, it really brought everything back and I can remember talking to Kathleen, who was running the whole situation, part of running it down at the fire shed, and she helped me with the guest house. And it was a Friday afternoon and she said, what do you reckon about this rain, Mel? And I said, yeah, I don't know. I reckon the book's coming up again. It could get us down the bottom. Not thinking, you're not thinking again that this will ever happen, really. Yeah, we hope not in our lifetime. But Kathleen said, yeah, I got a meeting with the SES, the SAVO. And I said, SES? And we both stood there and teared up and it was like, hang on a minute, is this going to happen again? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Not yet. It's only been 2, not even 2 years.
John Milham (Host) · 29:58
Yeah. No, not time for another record flood. No.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 30:02
And there's also people that aren't in their houses yet. You know, there's people that are just gotten by. And yeah, I don't know if people would be able to get through that again happening so quickly. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've got the warning system in place now, and it's Mother Nature, you know. We, we had, had the fires, and that wasn't as bad because it was a slow burn and you could see it. I mean, we, we live on the mountain, and yeah, we did have our mountain burn behind us within a couple of meters of our house, but You can monitor it. Whereas I remember saying to Kathleen, what about this? And she said, I'd rather fight a fire than a flood because it's also the cleaning up afterwards. Like I said, our fences are still down in between Benny and us, nearly 2 years. I think we're getting them done now, but the piles of timber are still there and There's stuff that I don't know if we'll ever fix up. Yeah, probably the worst thing was our pool. Oh yeah, it was half full of sand from the brook.
John Milham (Host) · 31:09
Wow.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 31:10
It just, it was, it was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Um, the amount of sand that came out of that, that brook. Yeah, the destruction.
John Milham (Host) · 31:22
So is your pool back?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 31:23
Took a long time. It's hard to believe. I've got a brother-in-law who's a pool man and he fixed it. And believe it or not, the water wasn't drained out of it. I don't know how they do it these days.
John Milham (Host) · 31:32
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 31:33
But they put stuff in and they vacuum it and we got all new pumps and everything had to be replaced, of course. But it was just a pool, you know, it can be replaced.
John Milham (Host) · 31:41
But yeah, it's interesting, you know, like as you, the people who have, are still, you know, dealing with the, the very real impact, not just the sort of echoes of the, of the flood. What do you think you learnt about the community you're in?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 32:01
Oh, what did I learn? That if, yeah, that if you need to pull together and something bad happens, there's people there. It's just, even now, you, I mean, as much as I use social media, for my business. That's my excuse, but I hate social media. But we've got a Broke Notice Board, and I've noticed it more so since the floods. If someone needs something or wants something on there, bang, what do you need? Where do you need it? We'll be there. Or even afterwards, I can remember someone saying, oh, we need a hand with pulling someone's spa out, or bang, there will be 5 blokes there. It's probably made me realize, and because living here for such a long time, we've never really needed that community support. But yeah, like, I have to say, I find living in Broke in, in the summer, I, I get down and I think, oh, I just want to live near the beach. And now autumn's hit and it's like, not going anywhere. But we live in a pretty special part of the world. There's a lot of special people here in Broke, you know, and you still go back to sticking to yourself and doing your own thing and you're busy. But, you know, there's people out there and I know for myself, if I needed someone or anyone out there needed a hand, there'll be people knocking on the door or knocking the door down to help you. That's probably the biggest thing.
John Milham (Host) · 33:33
It's a pretty powerful feeling to have. For your community. Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 33:39
Yeah. And you see that a lot here in the coffee shop, you know. You just— people come here to talk and sort of, you know, I'm Ryan's mum and it's his business, but, you know, Paul and I are often here having a chat and seeing how people are. And people tell you all their stuff, you know, because you're here and yeah, you're the front of the face of the place. And, um, yeah, sometimes you just don't know what people are going through.
John Milham (Host) · 34:02
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 34:03
But, um, yeah, no, we're, we're, we're a pretty tight little community.
John Milham (Host) · 34:09
So the— what do you like about the community now as a— after the flood?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 34:15
Like I said, it's, um, if you need to pull together, you can. You know, we're trying to bring more activities like to the hall. Um, there's a, there's a small group that, um, which, which will be nice to see more things. I mean, Not everyone can get to them during the week. They've got things on, but I'd love to see maybe a bush dance on a Friday night or use the hall a bit more, which Evelyn's trying to do. But there is more community things happening, which is great.
John Milham (Host) · 34:44
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 34:44
And yeah, we got the bicentennial coming up soon, which we'll all be a part of and just things like that. Beautiful. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 34:54
The Broke Village Fair and Yeah, which is, you know, which is a great little event I've attended myself. So lovely.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 35:02
Yeah. Yep. Yep. So just more and more of those things, I think. I mean, you know, the other thing is it is, it is a tourism destination. There's always things happening and I think maybe, you know, not too many things, but yeah. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 35:17
No, it's on the same vein, right?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 35:19
Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 35:20
That, that's a, you know, you paint a beautiful picture of your community, you know, after going through such a, you know, such a massive impact. But what did you learn about yourself?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 35:33
Probably that I like giving and helping and, um, yeah, pretty much.
John Milham (Host) · 35:38
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 35:39
That I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm a giver, not a taker. I like nurturing and fussing over people and it probably also Broadened my eyes to, yeah, what a great little community that we do have.
John Milham (Host) · 35:53
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 35:54
And yeah, I'm proud to say Broke's where I live. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 36:00
I love that. What would you tell people when you're like, you know, I'm, we're talking about the floods, obviously, you know, it still plays a part. What would you tell somebody who was writing the history of Broke and the floods? What would you tell 'em about it?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 36:15
What I tell them?
John Milham (Host) · 36:17
Yeah, they get— you get a paragraph. What are you going to share?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 36:22
It's something that I never thought I would be a part of living here, but being part of it, there were good things that came out of it. Um, being part of the community that we are, everyone pulling together, the services that were offered That was probably the biggest piece of support that we had. I mean, you had the Lismore floods, but we got so much help here from so many different people and so many different services. We were so fortunate. But I wouldn't want it to happen again to anyone.
John Milham (Host) · 37:01
Yeah, that's a great perspective. One opportunity to grow. Thanks.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 37:05
Right. So yeah, yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 37:07
Nice.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 37:08
It's not a, it's a not, it's not an easy one. I mean, you know, writing a paragraph for a paper, but yeah, wouldn't like to go through it again. Yeah.
John Milham (Host) · 37:18
What, um, what did you see in others that impressed you? Right. You know, in terms of acts or issues or challenges.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 37:27
Oh, people just helping others rather than not putting themselves first, you know, like the, The people in the fire brigade, their houses were going under. They had families at home, but they were doing their job and volunteered. You know, there's a handful of people that were just there day by day, just getting out of bed, helping everyone try and get by and sort out their houses and sort out what was going on and not worrying about what was going on at home. Yeah, that just blew a lot of people away. Yeah. Selfless.
John Milham (Host) · 38:03
It's hard not to feel, you know, connected to people who operate like that sometimes, isn't it?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 38:10
Yeah. And there's, you know, you've got your voluntary services and, you know, that's what they've gotta do. But so many other people stepped up. It was just, I don't know, can't explain it really how, um, we're all in it together and let's get in and what do you need done? What do you need done? Oh, we can get this organized and get that organized and You probably forget it a bit, and as time goes by, you know, it's nearly 2 years, and it's a shame that something like that has to happen to show people what we're like. But like I said, you know, we all go on every day, and if tomorrow something bad happened again, bang, those same people will be there.
John Milham (Host) · 38:49
And yeah, I loved how you shared that, um, you know, the idea, the realness of the water and, you know, the images you saw. Is there something that will always be that experience for you? Like, is there something that you'll see or hear or smell that'll always be the, that experience?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 39:12
Probably a couple of different things. Um, I think if because of where we live, it'll always be, you know, you're always down the back checking the level of the creek and has it come up? Being a guest house, we often say to people, you know, the, the plants and everything were just flattened. We never thought anything would just be back to normal. And even there's, there's even things still stuck in the fence.
John Milham (Host) · 39:41
So the fence will always be a reminder.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 39:44
Oh, even like I, and I don't think about it very much, but I went down the back to see Ryan's pod to get his dog and I just went, Oh, there's someone digging a hole. It's getting fixed. And it's, and then I walk past the bits of timber and went, oh, maybe they'll get moved back to where they belong one day.
John Milham (Host) · 40:04
Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 40:05
But I, there'll always be memories. The, the back toilet out the back, it's always blocked. I don't know. It's got probably full of mud. We just can never get it to work. It's, it's, you know, it's your outdoor toilet. It's a bit of a joke.
John Milham (Host) · 40:16
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 40:17
And the boys But it's like, since the floods, God knows what's in the pipes. There's a few things that'll never be the same.
John Milham (Host) · 40:24
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 40:24
Something that stuck in my mind is a smell that was around for a long time, but everything's pretty much getting back to normal. Probably the thing that stuck in my mind really, which was, yeah, which was around for a long time, was everyone's belongings on the side of the road. Yeah. Yeah, that was heartbreaking.
John Milham (Host) · 40:48
A lot of people have mentioned that, like, you know, almost as an enduring image of going through that, the loss was on the side of the road for everyone to see.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 40:58
Yep. Yeah, yeah. Not much fun. Everyone's belongings and people just clearing out their house and then a couple of houses where you drive on Wallumbi Street, which is what you see every day. Just empty.
John Milham (Host) · 41:14
Yeah.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 41:14
For 6 months or for a year, a shell, you know. Or even now, there's one house down near me that's still got the, um, the fencing around it. And I don't— I, I just— I heard the other day that I— something about insurance problems or something. And it's like the house has sat there with no one in it. For 18 months and it's only just, and then recently one house that I know of in the village was just dosed and is a vacant block of land. So yeah, there's still memories around that are, that are there in front of you.
John Milham (Host) · 41:52
Which the memories, you know, are powerful, but what, but there's also the future. What's your thoughts about the future for Broken Wallumbi and the area?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 42:04
I don't think about it too much. I think tourism will still continue. People will still come and move into the area. I mean, a few of us thought maybe people would stay away and not buy here after thinking about the floods and hearing about the floods. I think we'll just keep moving along. And it's Mother Nature. I don't think you can control Mother Nature. I don't even know about the warning system. How it exactly works. But the thing was with this flood, that's— and we've had a fair few floods where the roads have been shut in my time— the water just came from every direction. I don't have— I don't know. Or I have my own theory thinking maybe it was the bushfires cleared away everything and we had so much downpour that it just came out of the mountains. But you talk to everyone In particular, when you go to people's houses over the years, we've all got different views. It's such a pretty place. But when you talk to them after the floods, you got Mike who lives down the road on the flats, and he was like, I've never seen water come from behind me. It just come from all directions. I'm not worried about living in broken Wollombi for the future. I think most likely there will be another flood. There's a lot of trees in the bush. Brook that we all talk about that shouldn't be there and haven't been there for the whole of the 100 years. Years ago, there were never trees in the brook. A lot of people have got their own views, but I don't have a concern about living here, for my future of living here. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen. It was one in a 100-year flood. Maybe it's another 100 years. Let's hope it's not like Lismore and quite a few in a short period of time. Who knows?
John Milham (Host) · 44:02
Yep. Well, we won't bring that energy into the world. We'll just—
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 44:05
No, we don't need to worry about that at the moment.
John Milham (Host) · 44:09
Absolutely. But I do love— What do you expect? What do you hope happens for Broke going forward?
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 44:18
That we move on and the people that still aren't in their homes, get into their homes sooner than later. And, you know, we don't have too many more raw memories when it— when we do have a downpour. And we just continue going on the way that we are. We don't need too many more changes here. Hopefully, you know, we continue as a community and come together in other ways, and not in ways where we're dealing with a flood or a fire.
John Milham (Host) · 44:45
Yeah, there are other ways to grow together.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 44:47
Yeah, yeah. But I'm fortunate that I get to see that here in the shop, you know, with people that come in and yeah, you know, you get to keep in touch with the regulars and yeah, it's good.
John Milham (Host) · 44:59
Really good. Look, Melissa, this has been a wonderful chat. You have really made some moments of the floods and the community come alive for me, and I'm sure all the listeners. So it's like, Fantastic to hear your story and to hear like, you know, some of the detail just really brought it to life. So thank you so much for sharing that.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 45:25
Thank you.
John Milham (Host) · 45:27
It's so valuable and it's so inspiring to see the, you know, the ordinary extraordinary happen in Broke, right? So yeah, just normal people doing their everyday thing and And that's the absolute beauty of this story, I think. So thank you again for sharing and all the best. I look forward to having a coffee at Lagunis.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 45:54
Yeah, for sure. It'd be great to see you.
John Milham (Host) · 45:56
Fantastic. Thank you, Melissa.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 45:58
Take care.
John Milham (Host) · 46:03
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Beyond the Deluge. About the 2022 floods in Broke and the Hunter Valley. 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 Lilley. 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.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 46:55
Only when it's broken Only when it's broken.
John Milham (Host) · 47:04
When it hits you in the middle of the night and the truth burns so bright.
Melissa O’Toole (Guest) · 47:12
Only when it's broken. Only when it's broken. Take pride in this cry. It's only for tonight, and then you rise. Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken. Only when you're broken.
You don't have to be in crisis to call.
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