Backyards become battlegrounds as Forbes residents brace for floods

In the space where Forbes resident Dick Sharkey would usually watch the races on the TV in his backyard instead sits a pump helping keep water levels at bay.

As more than 1000 residents in the regional NSW town were on Friday evacuated to higher ground in preparation for its worst flood in 70 years, Sharkey and his family were busy sandbagging their home.

Dick Sharkey and his family were sandbagging their home on Friday as water levels rose.Credit: Nick Moir

“We’re fighting a losing battle, but we’re keeping it at bay at the moment,” Sharkey said.

The town, located in the Central West region of NSW, has a population of about 9000 people, of which the largest proportion are employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing. The federal and NSW government announced grants of up to $25,000 on Friday for primary producers affected by the floods.

Sharkey, who has worked for Australia Post for 50 years, was still working on Friday morning when his work was called off.

“I went out and did a bit of work this morning,” he said. “The water was just around the tyres but the boss told us we had to stop the deliveries.”

The father of three described the smell of the floodwaters creeping into his home. “It’s dirty, muddy and there’s sewerage in it,” he said.

Sharkey’s house, which they bought more than 30 years ago, has been through several floods – including three within the space of six months in the 1990s. And although it can’t be kept watertight, Sharkey is determined to defend his home.

“There’s a pump on the verandah that’s just keeping the water level down,” he said. “We’ve also got about three pallets of sandbags and are getting more, but it’s only going to prolong the inevitable.”

The NSW SES had more than 100 emergency alerts in place on Friday, of which 22 were evacuation orders or warnings.

Other areas which have been impacted by emergency warnings include Cowra, Wagga Wagga, Tumut, Bourke, Gunnedah, Mathoura and areas around Moama.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a mostly sunnier outlook in Forbes for Saturday after weeks of heavy rainfall, but up to 4 millimetres of rain a day has been forecast for next week.

Sharkey said the situation was “pretty stressful” but it was pointless to cry about it and he acknowledged there were people who were worse off in his community.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet visited Forbes earlier in the day to join the sandbagging effort as river levels continued to rise with an expected peak on Friday night.

The town’s Lachlan River was set to reach 10.8 metres on Friday – a similar level to the 1952 floods which split the town into three and devastated the region.

While Sharkey has watched the water levels rise, he has also seen neighbours rally together. “There was an old girl up the road who had no help and about 10 people went up to help her,” Sharkey said.

Having lived through the floods in the 1990s, Sharkey said the most important thing he learnt was to stay calm. “You can’t panic and you can’t worry too much about it,” he said. “It’s probably going to be worse than it was in the ’90s but once the water gets in, it gets in. We’ll be back in the house in probably a week or so.”

One of his children, 15-year-old daughter Reggie, hasn’t lived through a flood, but Sharkey said she was handling the situation well. “She’s level-headed and has pretty good friends so she’s going great,” he said.

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