Mannum celebrates Christmas as historic flood threat looms over town
Floodwaters loom large at Mannum, but it couldn’t dampen the Christmas spirit of its residents as they celebrated a festive season like no other.
SA News
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Alongside a dinghy loaded with gifts and food, with the mighty River Murray looming large, Roger and Karyn Baker belt out their version of ‘Aussie Jingle Bells’ on their ukuleles.
It’s a Christmas Day like no other for this married couple of 40 years, but they won’t let the threatening floodwaters dampen their festive spirit.
The joyous pair were forced to abandon life on their houseboat at the Mannum Marina a few weeks ago, but on Christmas morning they returned home.
“This is the very first Christmas where we’ve spent it completely by ourselves instead of tearing across South Australia seeing family and friends.”
“We don’t mind doing that, but it’s been a stressful time and we just felt we needed some downtime this year and that’s why we wanted to spend Christmas on our boat just the two of us.”
Despite the challenges they had faced, Ms Baker said the Christmas spirit was alive and well.
“It’s just been great to have so much support, hearing from family and friends who have offered to help,” she said.
“Christmas is about being there for each other and we’ve certainly felt the spirit in recent times.”
The couple are among many residents in the small riverside community of Mannum anxiously waiting for the river to rise and flows to peak in the coming weeks. Authorities predict that will occur between January 7 and 10.
Day by day water inches closer to the town’s centre, which is protected by several kilometres of levee bank.
It’s already threatened the livelihood of people like Trudy Fisher, who now has water on the backdoor step of her antique shop, Mannum Old Wares.
“It’s quite surreal that we’ve got this beautiful weather and we’re about to go underwater,” she sad.
But she wasn’t going to let it ruin Christmas.
“Christmas is a welcome distraction,” she said.
“It’s put a bit of happiness back in a bit of normality back into our lives for the day.”
After purchasing the shop only seven months ago, Ms Fisher chose to spend Christmas Day with the previous owners of the shop.
“Funnily enough the old owners, Ron and Glenda, had it for 35 years and never had one flood, I’ve had it for seven months and we’re getting ready to go under water,” she said.
“It’s great to spend Christmas with them because they’ve very much become part of my family. This is still their baby, it’s like I married their child.”
But their remains the harsh reality of what is going on around these resilient residents.
With water inundating shacks and cutting off power and water supply to homes, many people have sought refuge at the local football oval.
Among them are Neville Byrne and Leanne Hart, who took it upon themselves to cook a Christmas feast for those who had nowhere else to go.
“It’s a pretty important day for most people, but it can also be a sad day for some people,” Mr Byrne said.
“We just tried to get as many people together here just to keep the spirit up.”
He said catering from a caravan wasn’t without its challenges.
“You don’t have the expanses of your own kitchen, so you can only really have one person in there at a time,” he said.
“But we had turkey, ham, pastries and desserts, I think we did a pretty good job putting on a good Christmas lunch from a caravan.”
However, it was The Mannum Club that became the most popular spot for revellers to escape the flood drama and enjoy the Christmas festivities.
Just after midday, more than 150 people flocked to the club for a full traditional Christmas buffet lunch.
Bar manager Brett Waterman said it was fantastic to provide a service to many who in the community who were struggling.
“We had people in here for lunch who have either had their shacks go underwater or lost access to them,” he said.
“The community spirit here has been on display and we love that we can play a small part in that.”
In a parting Christmas message, Mr Waterman thanked South Australians for continuing to support riverside communities.
“I’d love to thank everyone that has made the effort to come down here and spend money. It’s keeping people in jobs and helping the town fight through a pretty ordinary time,” he said.
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