River Murray Recovery Stories
Shelley Rose · 59 min
Across 440 kilometres of flood-devastated communities, one well-being officer armed with a four-wheel drive, paint brushes, and 23 years of local trust became a lifeline for hundreds of people the system had forgotten.
Two years after the 2022 River Murray floods, most people in the Riverlands still haven't moved back into their homes. They're living in caravans on their properties, waiting for demolitions to finish and rebuilds to start. The psychological weight of that waiting has become harder than the flood itself. Shelley Rose, a financial counsellor and mental health practitioner who has lived in the region for 23 years, spent those two years as the wellbeing officer covering 440 kilometres of affected communities, from the Riverland to Murray Bridge. Armed with a four-wheel drive, paintbrushes, and deep local trust, she became a lifeline for hundreds of people the system had forgotten.
Shelley learned quickly that people in crisis cannot hold information in their heads. She helped them write down their next steps, document what they needed, and see a clear path forward when everything felt impossible. When one person got a plan and started to move, they told their neighbour, who told the next person. That hope spread through the community without anyone needing to convince them. She discovered a critical gap: a stretch between Mannum and Wakery with no mental health services, where suicide rates were already high before the floods and have likely climbed since.
What worked in the immediate response was simple but crucial. Councils that started preparing in June and July, and then communicated multiple times a day about what was happening, gave people the information they needed to make their own decisions about safety. Shelley's vision for the future is different from disaster-response work that deploys only when crisis hits. She wants regional wellbeing officers working year-round to build community strength and connection before the next disaster strikes, so fewer people reach the point of crisis that requires crisis services.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide & self-harm prevention, 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
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