Wingecarribee LGA: Flooded houses, road damage, stranded animals

With over 300 SES requests over the weekend and Monday including flooded houses and road damage, the Wingecarribee LGA has been declared a natural disaster zone. Find out about the incidents and current road closures here.

With over 300 SES requests over the weekend and Monday including flooded houses and road damage, the Wingecarribee LGA has been declared a natural disaster zone.

Following severe storms and flooding, the Moss Vale unit commander Dylan Whitlaw said some properties across the Highlands had water flowing through that was “above ankle-deep” which was “quite damaging” to the homes.

According to the Moss Vale SES unit Facebook page, towns in the Highlands exceeded the 24 hour rainfall predictions by the Bureau of Meteorology, with Robertson reaching 253mm in one day.

Moss Vale and Wingecarribee SES crews repairing a roof in Moss Vale.

Moss Vale and Wingecarribee SES crews chainsawing a tree which fell on a Berrima property during the heavy rain.

Mr Whitelaw said majority of the SES requests were for flooded properties in Moss Vale and Wingecarribee, leaking roofs and trees fallen on houses.

He also spoke of some of the incidents that over 50 Moss Vale and Wingecarribee volunteers attended.

“The Mittagong creek system overflowed and came into properties,” he said.

“Volunteers got into gumboots and pumped out the water from homes.”

“Unfortunately water leaves a lasting mark and has an awful smell when it dries out, so we really had to get on top of it.”

The Southern Tablelands was luckier in that the region didn’t get as many calls from the local SES – only around 15 – however the Crookwell SES unit did reveal a car rescue due to the flooding in the area.

Volunteers from the Crookwell SES unit in the Southern Tablelands had to rescue a car swept away due to flooding in Crookwell.

Besides flooding calls, Mr Whitelaw spoke of the intense damage the heavy rain caused to roads in the Highlands.

“Priesley St in Mittagong had some severe cracking due to the rainfall and was closed by Council to be assessed,” Mr Whitelaw said.

There was also a recently developed sinkhole in Moss Vale spotted by the SES that will also need to be assessed.

Sink hole on the corner of Yarrawa St and Browley St at Mann Crescent, Moss Vale.

According to the local SES units no animal rescue calls were made, but locals like Rubey Williams still had to deal with stock dilemmas on their own.

The Berrima resident said her and her dad’s farm felt the “pinch of rain” mostly on Friday afternoon and Saturday when trying to take care of their animals, including 1200 alpacas.

Parts of the property were flooded off and the laneway was flooded so we couldn’t access vehicles to help move stock,” Ms Williams said.

“Alpacas don’t like water and it’s a bit of an effort to move them through it.”

Some of the 1200 alpacas Rubey Williams has on her property in Berrima.

The alpacas after being rained on at Rubey’s farm.

“Thankfully a lot of them are flooded into paddocks where they can eat but if the water goes up they won’t be able to access the food.”

Ms Williams said they now have to deal with the aftermath of the flooding.

“There’s going to be quite a bit to manage after the rain just to make sure everyone pulls through relatively unscathed, which may take a couple of weeks,” Ms Williams said.

“All the animals will have to stay in the paddocks that have flooded for about a month and them being wet and cold could cause health troubles like hyperthermia.”

Rubey’s dad sweeping up the rain that flooded a barn at their property.

Ms Williams said she loves taking care of alpacas on the farm, which according to her is one of the first to have them in Australia.

“I got into alpacas when I was born and don’t know life without them,” Ms Williams said.

A Moss Vale unit SES emergency vehicle at Berrima over the weekend.

With the Southern Highlands being hit several times by heavy rain this year, Mr Whitelaw said that the community had managed to avoid the worst this time around.

“We’re very lucky this time that we didn’t have to activate rescues which shows that the public is adhering to our messaging,” Mr Whitelaw said.

“We also proactively door knocked in Farmboroughs Close, Bowral which in March had to be evacuated as the water was above chest height.”

Below are the current road closures in the Southern Highlands as a result of flooding and rain damage:

• Sheirlaw Road, Causeway, Barrengarry Ck – Scoured pavement & drains, undermined pavement
• Belmore Falls rd from Barrengary Creek – Road closed due to flooding at the causeway
• Old South Road, between Range Rd and Old Hume Hwy - Pavement damage (extensive potholes)
• Drapers Road Causeway - Flooding
  
• Ellsmore Road, Causeway flooding, Reedy Ck – Road Closure – Flooding
• Lackey Road – Floodway along railway
• Diamond Fields Road, Bridge side track - Damage
  
• Headlam Road – Closed due to major flooding
• Railway Road – At 1.6m on flood posts
• Mt Gibraltar Lookout Access Rd, access trail to Bowral lookout - Damage
• Causeway over Cordeux Creek – Road closed due to flooding
• Mount Road – Floodway Near Mittagong Rivulet
• Shepherd St Bowral, Mittagong Rivulet Crossings – Flooding
• Robinson St – Damaged culvert. Access via Nero St track
• Causeway over Cordeux Creek – Road closed due to flooding
• No. 108 and surrounds – Partly closed due to table drain spilling over road