Buoyed by a resident spirit
IT was one of the hardest-hit streets but Jess Walker and her partner Nev stuck it out throughout the flood catastrophe.
Hodel St in Rosslea was underwater days before the Ross River Dam gates opened fully and even as water receded in most places, it remained inundated.
The street now looks like a war zone, homes gutted, furniture stacked high on the footpath and household items systematically sorted into large bright blue skip bin bags by volunteers.
“The street was the one that got me,” Ms Walker said.
“You’re seeing kids’ stuffed toys, couches, photos, things that had massive amounts of water damage but had been up high.
“It was a very surreal kind of thing to witness.”
The couple did not evacuate their home, choosing to stick it out for six days. They have lost most of their possessions stored under their highset Queenslander.
“For anyone else it would have been extremely daunting but we’re fairly strong people so we are quite lucky that we had each other to lean on,” Ms Walker said. “And if it wasn’t for the mates that we had immediately around us that kept in contact we would have cracked days and days beforehand.
“We didn’t have a generator for two days so we were drinking hot beer, and that was s--t.”
They said seeing clean concrete for the first time during the clean-up was an indescribable feeling, because it meant progress was being made.
“The one thing I was completely surprised about was how well everyone came together,” Ms Walker said.
“It didn’t matter who you saw, it could’ve been your best mates or your enemies, everyone got treated the same; everyone came together and we met a lot of people down the street who we didn’t even know were here.
“It’s a very overwhelming feeling to see how people could pull together to help a portion of the community who were affected. It shows potential for what the community can be, if we can keep that momentum going.”