The rainfall — which acted as an ominous warning of the threat flood would wreak on the historic township at Wilberforce — resulted in dozens of structures completely inundated waters, while friends of the village scrambled to save cornered livestock and salvage historic, irreplaceable artefacts.

Village treasurer Gae Parmenter described the rattling of the tin roof in the dead of night as a “eerie reminder” of what they would face as the sun rose.

“We decided to stay overnight on Saturday to protect livestock because the rising floodwaters were coming in so quickly,” she told The Hawkesbury News. “It was unpredictable, we knew we needed to stay because the contour of the land meant some dry land would be inundated quickly — we needed to watch the livestock.”

The almost 30 acres of land and some of the original buildings on site, now known as the pioneer village, made up the third mainland settlement of Australia established in 1797 for the “survival of colonial NSW”.

Landowners William MacKay and Joshua Rose established the settlement by 1809, with the Rose family living and working the land for 150 years, until the last descendant died in 1961.

Australia’s oldest timber dwelling on its original site, Rose Cottage, has stood at the village since it was built in 1811, and is currently under threat of rising floodwaters within 100m of the building.

In 1967, plans were developed for the Pioneer Village, which later resulted in twelve historic buildings including the small Bee House shop from McGraths Hill, Riverstone General Store and Jack Greentree’s Garage all relocated to the site by 1970 when the Austaliana Pioneer Village was opened.

Volunteers on site said water is rising quickly, within 50m of the General Store and Jack Greentree’s Garage, which neighbour each other.

The volunteers, who scrambled to move as much as they could to higher ground, raced against time as floodwater quickly claimed several historic buildings in the recreated township.

“We aren’t being hit with flowing, rapid-moving water, it is still, quiet and rising quickly,” Ms Parmenter said. “Our railway station and all of the carriages are completely underwater, all you can see is the roof of the station. 

“We managed to move the train itself, but everything else is deep underwater — the church is in a similar position.”

On Tuesday morning, Ms Parmenter and several other volunteers were preparing to navigate the floodwaters by boat in an effort to survey the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage expected at the site.

“We just spent thousands of dollars on roads, new picnic zones, and other maintenance work — all that money will now be wasted,” she said.

Village president Kevin Weeks, who is cut off from being able to help his fellow volunteers on the southern side of the Hawkesbury said without the support of the dedicated team on the ground, much of the village, and the livestock would have perished.

“It is hard to see what the damage is across the expanse of 27 acres at this stage,” he said.

“There are 22 historic buildings on-site, so the team that has been working non-stop for two days has been moving artefacts from buildings as the water rises. 

“It is not looking good.”

Mr Weeks said just 2 acres of dry land remained, which is being used to house 21 sheep, three goats, a mule, a donkey and a miniature horse alongside all the historical artefacts saved on Saturday.

“One of our restaurants is completely flooded,” he said. “We have tried to rescue as many things of significance, but there are other artefacts that may not be able to be saved.”

The village president said volunteers were hopeful that water levels would begin the subside.

“If mother nature wants to take a building, it is going to happen — there is nothing we can do to stop it,” he said.

“The team on the ground have been wading through water and were forced to rescue the goats and ram in a rowboat — they had to get the livestock across the water to save them.