NSW town Euabalong ordered to evacuate as two-kilometre wall of dirt holds back record flood

The whole town of Euabalong has been working since midnight ripping up a road to save the tiny town, with residents ordered to evacuate amid a flood expected to break records. See the video.

A 2 kilometre long-mound of dirt is all that keeps the tiny western NSW town of Euabalong from flooding over, with locals facing a nervous wait after emergency services ordered the evacuation of the town late on Wednesday afternoon.

Residents were ordered to get to the town’s Royal Hotel just after 4pm amid concerns the Lachlan River would peak at a record-breaking eight metres on Thursday.

Locals and emergency services have constructed the 2 kilometre long levee of dirt which is all that keeps the township from flooding, with roads cut off by water days ago.

Locals and emergency services have constructed a hundreds-metre long dirt mound to protect their tiny community of Eubalong from rising flood waters. Picture: Erin Dooley

Resident Patrick Byrnes said work began on the levee around midnight on Sunday when floodwaters first breached the town.

“Someone made the call to get a (road) grader and rip up a side street which made the bund,” Mr Byrnes said.

“While that happened, everyone here was sandbagging and managed to contain it … the whole town came out. There was old ladies on the sandbags.”

Picture: Erin Dooley ,

Brave locals have been assisted by the Singapore army, the Australian Defence Force, Fire and Rescue and volunteers from the North Parkes Mines.

Residents now face a nervous wait to see if the levee is breached on Thursday.

The NSW SES has urged locals to leave the town, with an evacuation centre set up in Lake Cargelligo for those flown out of the flood hit town.

FARMERS TO COP $3B LOSS IN FLOODS AGONY

Farmers in the state’s west are facing $3 billion in crippling losses as “inland lakes” strangle what crops they have remaining and make it impossible to harvest after floods killed their livestock and ruined their properties.

Preliminary assessments from 733 farmers to the state and federal governments had losses averaging $440,000 and the total toll after more claims are submitted is expect to reach $3 billion.

In comparison, the 2019-2020 bushfires stripped $4b to $5bn from the entire country’s agriculture sector.

Forbes farmer Tom Green says up to 98 per cent of his property was submerged a fortnight ago, with the sheep and crop farmer weighing up losing at least half of his harvest this year.

More than two weeks after floods hit his properties outside Forbes, Mr Green still can’t access one of his farms which remains cut off.

After a good harvest in 2020 following years of drought, farmers around Forbes were battered by flood last year, only to be devastated again this month by the worst flood in the region since 1990.

Farmer Tom Green on his flood impacted property on the outskirts of Forbes. Picture: Gary Ramage

“Last year the flood certainly damaged us. It didn’t get up onto the high flood plain and we lost some crop in there but we were able to salvage the majority of it,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

“This one we’ve had (this year) just flattened fences and knocked a heap of crop out where ever the water goes.”

He estimates at least 50 per cent of his harvest will be ruined, while he is also facing replacing 20 kilometres of fence line which was damaged by the raging waters.

National Party leader David Littleproud said if early estimates show $3bn in losses, the actually figure could be higher.

“This could be the tip of the iceberg that NSW may not have ever seen before,” he said. He said the damage to the crop was tougher to take as the price of fuel, fertiliser and seeding had increased.

“When you have preliminary estimates of this scale it shows the sheer carnage NSW farmers have borne and this is off the back of one of the highest input years to grow a crop ever,” he said.

NSW Farmers Business, Economics and Trade Committee chair John Lowe said a survey of members found those with crops still in the ground were expecting poor quality yield.

“A whopping 83 per cent are expecting a below-average quality harvest when they can get back on to paddocks. Equipment has been damaged or destroyed, fences and roads on properties are damaged, and we have had reports to date of 608 cattle and 9000 sheep lost to flooding,” he said.

“Feed supplies will dwindle and there are increasing concerns about foot rot, wool rot, fly strike and a number of other conditions in livestock.” - Lachlan Leeming and Campbell Gellie

OUT OF THE TORRENT, INTO THE FIRE

Frank Allen thought it couldn’t get any worse after floods pumped more than a metre of water through his house on the edge of Forbes a fortnight ago.

But now he and wife Amelia have been left with just “the clothes on our back” after a fire tore through their home in the early hours of Wednesday.

Retiree Mr Allen (pictured) also lost eight cattle from his property when floodwaters rushed through two weeks ago but the worst was yet to come after a 5am phone call on Wednesday told them their home had burnt down.

Forbes retiree Frank Allen. Picture: Gary Ramage

The pair were staying in a hotel when they received the dreaded news, where they have been since being evacuated in the floods which struck Forbes earlier this month.

Mr Allen said the flames had dashed their plans to recover from the fire, with neither sure what would come next. “I’ve never seen any floods of this height,” Mr Allen, who at 77 has lived in Forbes his whole life, said.

“We were going to try to do it up and get back in. You’ve just got to take it and get on with it, haven’t you?”

Wife Amelia said the pair now face an anxious wait to see what their insurance would cover. They have been put up in a hotel since their home was flooded but, with it now facing demolition, they’re unsure what comes next.

“We’ve got nothing left. We don’t know where we’re going from here. We’ve got to hope our insurance helps us out,” Mrs Allen said. - Lachlan Leeming