Booligal not fazed by flood

By Krista Schade

A visit to the village of Booligal last week is a lesson in calm resilience, as townspeople and landholders alike resolutely go about their business, as the Lachlan River continues to rise around them.

One home in the village has water above floor level, but in true Booligal style the tenant has simply moved in with some mates up the road. The same mates who I met enroute to help him lift his important belongings above the flood levels, and who will carry it all back down again afterwards.

There is a line up of cars in Lachlan Street, Booligal, which has become an oasis of bitumen for surrounding farmers. The vehicles are left ‘in town’, abandoned in favour of quad bikes and buggies, which are more suited to the miles of unsealed quagmire that used to be hard dirt roads that linked homesteads.

At the intersection of Lachlan and Adelaide Streets I came across Lyn and Peter Robinson (pictured above), atop their own ATV.

“You lost?” Peter asked.

I explained I had ventured north for a meeting, but been distracted by the floodwater scenery around town, so had lapped around a bit first, taking photos.

“Yeah, that meeting has been cancelled,” Lyn informed me. “Too wet for anyone to get in for.”

Given the sheets of water stretching as far as the eye can see beside many parts of the Cobb Highway, Lyn’s information made a lot of sense.

So instead of attending the now defunct meeting, I chatted a while more, before following the Robinsons’ directions and heading out past Booligal Station.

Here, I was met with waters lapping the bitumen roadway, that is now a narrow slice through the floodwaters, which are alive. Ducks with swarms of furiously paddling ducklings in tow, graceful Ibis and the symphony of frog calls greeted me when I stepped out of the car.

And that is typical Booligal – floods at the doors, but no sense of panic. Mates helping mates, and people being resourceful and getting about their day, despite facing sodden struggles most of us are unaware of.

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) was also in the Booligal area, but much more adventurous than I, with just my daily driver for transportation.

The DPI team was hard at work, but armed with a pair of heavy-duty helicopters, and were busy moving stranded stock on the properties surrounding the village.

With a sturdy team of a dozen or so, farmers loaded stock 10 at a time into steel cages, which were lifted by the choppers, and dropped off on dry ground. The helicopters worked in sync, dropping off a full cage and collecting an empty one before returning to rescue more soggy sheep.

The Lachlan River at Booligal is currently at 3.14 metres (Monday), after peaking at 3.22 which exceeded the 1974 flood level of 3.16 metres.

The Robinsons were able to complete crutching in the wet.