Near Woodburn in the Northern Rivers region is Olive Gap Organic Farm, a property run by siblings Alex and Tess O’Reilly and their families, raising cattle, growing and distilling organic tea tree essential oil, and harvesting seasonal cut flowers.
It sounds idyllic, but this farm was just one of many immersed in catastrophic floodwaters affecting parts of New South Wales and Queensland in February and March.
When the floodwaters came, Alex’s partner Tara Luca describes it as feeling “surreal” as despite earlier heavy downpours, when the flood arrived there was no current or rain, just still waters rapidly rising before their eyes.
Despite this almost gentle arrival, the destruction was anything but. The waters rose up to 3 metres, inundating two of the property’s three residences, farm machinery and sheds, submerging tractors and welders, as well as their newly packaged tea tree oil stock, ready for launch in April.
“We did flood preparation the night before knowing it was going to flood, but even in the last few big floods, it’s only ever touched our back paddocks.”
It was 2 to 3 metres deep where we have our higher ground on the farm, ground that’s never gone under before.”
The family saved all the animals, even kayaking two calves across waters to reunite them with their mothers, but it’s not lost on them the trauma experienced by so many other farmers, who were unable to save their stock and suffered even greater infrastructure losses.
A devastated community to rebuild
During the conversation with Australian Farmers, Tara’s phone line was intermittent, with telecommunications still not fully restored.
