Latest news with #MidNorthCoast
ABC News
12 hours ago
- Climate
- ABC News
Cundle Flat residents still isolated by flood damage.
A Mid North Coast community spent one month relying on chopper drops in the wake of May's devastating floods. Supplied: Pip Hamersley-Everett
ABC News
4 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Oyster farmers hopeful after record floodwater opens Manning River
Oyster farmers have lost hundreds of thousands of molluscs in the recent record flooding, but experts believe the deluge could benefit the industry long term. Ian Crisp spent a week shifting oyster baskets and moving lines in the Manning River in preparation for the wild weather that hit the New South Wales Mid North Coast in May. The river rose 3.55 metres above the May average at Mr Crisp's business near Croki. His oyster leases were shifted by the floodwater which also washed away $100,000 worth of baskets. "It's just plucked out the anchors of one end [of the leases] and the whole thing swung around," Mr Crisp said. Expensive machinery on the riverbanks, including a $40,000 oyster grading machine, was also destroyed. But Mr Crisp's wife, Rose, said the full extent of the flood's impact was not yet known. "If you're going to lose something, it'll be young stock," she said. Around a dozen oyster growers operate out of the Manning River, where the industry was valued at more than $1 million in the 2023–24 financial year. Matt and Peita Carroll spent three years growing their stock. "We probably lost half a million Sydney rock oysters … most of it ready for market this Christmas, but they're no longer with us," Mr Carroll said. Federal and state government disaster relief grants of up to $25,000 are being offered to eligible farmers and small businesses. The Carrolls estimated losses of around $250,000 upon first assessment. "An oyster farmer is resilient … they're as resilient as what they farm," Ms Carroll said. The 261-kilometre-long Manning River is a double delta river system, meaning it has two openings to the ocean. According to the NSW government, it is the only river of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The river's southern entrance — at the Farquhar Inlet near Old Bar — is intermittently closed by a natural sand barrier. With assistance from a flood notch carved out by Mid Coast Council, the heavy floodwaters opened the second entrance last month, which is expected to improve oyster quality. "Your oysters aren't stressed for as long, so they'll recover." Mr Carroll, president of the Manning Valley Oyster Farmers Association, agreed that salty water flowing through the system with both entrances open was "vital to oyster growth". "The salinity will come back bigger and better and the oysters will absolutely power on." It has prompted the oyster growers to call for the river entrance to remain open permanently to benefit production in the region. "[We want] permanent management … maintenance, dredging channels to it," Mr Crisp said. "Making sure that we've got a much better chance in a flood of getting water away." The Manning River entrance is not on the state government's priority list for dredging within the Maritime Infrastructure Plan, but Transport for NSW said it would "work closely with local stakeholders". "While the Manning River entrance [including Farquhar Inlet] is not currently identified as a priority site within the plan, the broader dredging program remains responsive to changing needs across the state," Transport for NSW said in a statement. MidCoast Council has a management plan in place for the Farquhar Inlet entrance, and another concentrated plan for the coastal compartment at Old Bar and Manning Point is in development. Last year a council-commissioned external review assessed management options, noting it could cost around $30 million to dredge the opening over 20 years. The council said the entrance was expected to naturally stay open for some time, but a permanent entrance "is not economically viable or practical". But amid the clean-up process, Mr Carroll said having the river replenished by the recent opening could benefit oyster quality for up to five years. "This is going to contribute to the river health like you wouldn't believe," he said.
Daily Telegraph
4 days ago
- Daily Telegraph
Jadison Ridgeway, Herbie Morcombe deaths near Harrington crash: latest
Don't miss out on the headlines from Mid-North Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News. The mum of one of the men discovered dead near a mysterious motorbike crash site on the Mid-North Coast has opened up on her theories about the deaths, and revealed the heartbreaking moment she learned they had been found. The Harrington deaths of cousins Herbert (Herbie) Morcombe and Jadison Ridgeway in August last year has been the subject of much speculation in the community of Taree – with questions whether they were chased in the lead up to the accident or possible victims of foul play. But authorities have closed the case, with The Daily Telegraph revealing in an exclusive last week that the matter will not be subject to an inquest, or any further investigation. Jadison's mother Alanie James said her son, if still alive, would have been celebrating his 21st birthday next month. She is the first to admit he had fallen foul of the law and the crashed bike was in fact stolen. The roadside memorial for Jadison Ridgeway and (at right) Jadison with his mother Alanie James. 'I was just waiting for him to find himself,' she tearfully told this publication. He had his 'partying habits' but was also a loving father to a baby girl, she said on Monday. Police at the scene of the crash last year along Harrington Road about 11km from Harrington. Picture: Janine Watson She also maintains a steadfast belief that the pair were being pursued. 'I am thinking they were chased,' she said. Herbert and Jadison were last seen leaving a home on Dunoon St, Taree about 3.30am on Friday, August 16 last year. Family and friends became worried and told police the disappearance was out of character. Herbert 'Herbie' Morcombe and his partner Kuliyah Simon. On August 20, the police were notified and two days later officers made a public appeal for information. Ms James joined the search for the pair in Taree, door knocking around various neighbourhoods. When, on August 26, she heard bodies had been located along Harrington Road not far from the Pacific Highway exit, family members drove her there. The roadside memorial for the two men - not far from highway turn off to Harrington. Picture: Janine Watson 'There was a woman police officer there and she took my hand and walked me over there and I collapsed. I was off tap, banging my head on the ground.' But she said after the 'big heads' got involved she was told to get off the road and she said it has been a strained relationship with police ever since. The bodies of missing Taree men Herbert Morcombe, 21, and Jadison Ridgeway, 20 were found on Monday, August 26 last year, near a crashed motorbike on Harrington Road. Emergency services at work at the Harrington crash scene in August last year. Picture: Janine Watson. Police determined the motorbike they were on lost control on a corner and smashed into trees. The NSW Coroner's Court has confirmed it will not be pursuing the matter. Ms James said that unlike the police in the Karuah and Newcastle area where she lives, Taree police 'haven't been involved with the community enough'. Jadison with his mother at Saltwater Reserve near Taree. 'Here police play footy with the kids and they (the kids) get to know them as adults not just police. 'In Taree they are 300 years behind.' Ms James said she was not surprised the case had been closed on the young men's deaths. 'I knew we would be put on the backburner.' Got a news tip? Email:
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
More than one million Aussie homes at risk from fires, floods as housing crisis deepens
More than 1000 homes have been left uninhabitable by devastating floods on the NSW Mid-North Coast, a report has found, amid fears the climate crisis could put millions more at risk. The report by the Housing, Homelessness, and Disasters National Symposium last week found 1153 homes were left uninhabitable by the floods. Another 1831 homes were damaged. Some 23,000 Australians are displaced by floods, bushfires, and cyclones each year, with the report finding 5.6 million homes are at risk from bushfires as climate impacts accelerate. Homeless Australia CEO Kate Colvin said as climate disasters become more regular, there was a risk of a 'two-tiered society' in which housing security determined disaster survival. 'There is a gap between people who are best able to protect themselves and people who are least able to,' she said. Ms Colvin said renters were often limited to cheaper properties in more flood-prone areas and were less resilient to climate-related disasters, compared with higher-income earners. Renters also often had less access to government support and faced a 'superheated' rental market. 'They can't compete because all those people who had insurance often also get a special payments system to afford rent during the time when their home is not available,' Ms Colvin said. 'They then can't get a rental because you've got this superheated market, so you have another wave of homelessness just because of the housing market impact'. Ms Colvin called on the federal government to make renters or people facing homelessness a priority in future disaster responses, and include disaster resilience in its 10-year housing plan. 'In the planning phase, include the homelessness sector, include strategies around housing resilience … (and) in the response phase, be inclusive of people who are facing homelessness.' The symposium brought together more than 100 professionals across the housing, emergency management, and governmental sectors to examine how 'secondary crises' affect NSW. Factors included the prevalence of construction workers who flood disaster zones in the wake of climate events, inadvertently driving up rents for already struggling locals. The symposium found that in Australia, some 953,000 homes were vulnerable to flooding and 17,500 were at threat from coastal erosion, with 169,000 people on the public housing list. HowWeSurvive UNSW Sydney academic and co-author of the symposium report, Dr Timothy Heffernan, said climate disasters were already hitting 'housing-vulnerable' communities. 'When you have 6.5 million homes at risk from bushfires, floods or coastal erosion, and a housing system that can't meet demand, every disaster becomes a humanitarian crisis,' he said. 'Hotels and motels fill up immediately, caravan parks are often in flood-prone areas … We're asking an already strained system to absorb sudden surges of thousands of displaced people.' Social Futures general manager Martelle Geurts said the Northern Rivers housing system was 'already fragile' when it was hit by the 2022 flood disaster, damaging more than 10,000 homes. Despite extensive recovery efforts, the Northern Rivers accounted for about a third of rough sleepers in NSW in 2025. The most recent NSW Street Count - an annual audit of people facing homelessness - found 346 people sleeping rough in the City of Sydney. In the Northern Rivers, there were 654 people. 'Climate events are becoming more frequent and severe, and they destroy homes. So, climate change and homelessness are inextricably linked,' Ms Geurts said. 'People can't recover without stable housing. 'Disasters displace people and can cause lasting trauma. Some people experience PTSD, and the impact of that can be lifelong. 'What we know is that people can't recover psychologically unless they have a secure place to live.'
ABC News
6 days ago
- Climate
- ABC News
Wingham still relying on temporary water solution after Mid North Coast floods
In the wake of record-breaking floods on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, a community is still relying on a vulnerable temporary water supply after a major pipeline was destroyed at the height of the disaster. The force of the floodwater in late May tore through the pipeline that supplies water to Wingham, connecting its reservoirs with the region's Bootawa water supply dam near Taree. MidCoast Council director of infrastructure and engineering services Rob Scott said the pipe broke where it crossed the deepest part of the Manning River. "Some of that riverbank lost 20 metres or more of earth. That left one of our water mains almost completely unsupported on that southern side," he said. Mr Scott said the council had created a temporary solution, using an alternative pipeline to pump water from a reservoir near Taree to Wingham's reservoir. He said a permanent fix was urgently needed because there was no other backup system. He said if the backup pipeline broke the water supply to residents in Wingham, Taree and towns to the north, including Harrington and Coopernook, would be "significantly impacted" due to their connected system of reservoirs. "We don't know how long it would take to repair … and from then on, whatever is left in the reservoirs is all that we would have," Mr Scott said. "Within a day the high areas would start to have low water pressure … by the end of the second and third days some people would be without water, and that would progressively spread as the reservoirs depleted. "For example … Wingham's reservoir has about 10 megalitres at any point in time, and the daily use is 2 megalitres." Mr Scott said it took days for council crews to secure the temporary solution and in the meantime, emergency measures were taken to support residents. "During that time we used water carting and water bottles being delivered … water was also carted to Wingham Hospital," he said. Wingham resident Colleen Williams said her water was cut off for four days. "There were access points where we could drive into town … and collect bottled water," she said. "There were a few times where we did have to go to the Tigers [Rugby League Club] and boil the water for basin baths." The MidCoast Council has resolved to spend $4.1 million to urgently replace the damaged section of pipeline. Councillors supported a recommendation to fast-track the project, with the goal of completing it in six months. Mr Scott said the new infrastructure would be more secure during floods. "The existing pipeline was built in the 1960s and trenched into the bottom of the Manning River," he said. "New technology means we can literally drill a hole through the rock below the riverbed … by doing that we can avoid the risk of the pipeline being damaged by flood debris or impacted by riverbank erosion. Engineers Australia College of Environmental Engineering chair Kala Senathirajah said there was a considerable amount of aging water infrastructure across the country. "A lot the assets have been put in post World War II and are now quite old," she said. "It's getting to a stage where there needs to be a lot of assets renewed or replaced at the same time and due to funding and resource constraints, we will need to stagger that. "When we have floods or other natural disasters, they [the aging water infrastructure] are more vulnerable … to the situation that has happened at Wingham." Mr Scott said other councils with aging water infrastructure should be aware of the possible issues. "There's been several similar cases to ours over the years, where [pipe] river crossings have been lost during flood events, and then the council or water authority is faced with the expensive prospect of having to rush a project through to replace it," he said. "The problem is it's also high cost, so it's whether you can really balance risk with costs."
