Mid North Coast community traces Manning River flood history
Ross Murray grew up in the house his father built and this photograph is from the 1950 flood. (Supplied: Ross Murray)
For residents living on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, the recent record-breaking flood event may be the worst natural disaster they have witnessed in their lifetime.
In May, the Manning River reached a record high of 6.44 metres at Martin Bridge, submerging Taree and large stretches of the coast.
The flood surpassed the previous record of 5.9 metres set in the 1929 flood, but for some in the community, there is a sense of history repeating itself.
Ross Murray has traced his family roots in the region back hundreds of years, discovering a deep and tragic connection to floods.
Biripi elder Russell Saunders' connection to the country stretches back even further, as his ancestors were traditional custodians of the land for tens of thousands of years.
From his house in the high ground of Tinonee, Uncle Russ, as he is known by his community, watched the most recent floodwaters rise across the plains where, as a child, he would fish with his father.
Uncle Russ says he learnt to spot the signs of a coming flood from his elders. (ABC Mid North Coast: Wiriya Sati)
"It looked like a big lake," Uncle Russ said.
Signs of a coming flood
Uncle Russ is an artist and language teacher and has long been a custodian of cultural knowledge.
He learned to spot the signs of a coming flood from his father and the elders of his community.
"Dad taught us a lot of signs and wonders about reading the river," he said.
Grant Saunders, Uncle Russ's nephew, catches a fish. (Supplied: Grant Saunders)
"I remember one time I saw carpet snakes near the bank, first one, then another, about a dozen all up.
"My dad told me, 'We're going to get a flood,' and sure enough, it came."
He said when they saw the black cockatoos flying over as kids, the elders used to always tell them that rain was coming.
"When you see the ants pile up their nest like a little volcano, that's a sign of floods coming," he said.
The Saunders family have spent a lifetime fishing the Manning River. (Supplied: Grant Saunders)
Uncle Russ's eldest brother, Ray, has been a licensed fisherman since 1975, and this cultural knowledge has helped his craft.
"Fig trees and banksias turn their leaves up to expose their white undersides when wind blows on them,"he said.
"White ants start flying out of the forest looking for holes in trees to move into another nesting area — they called them storm ants.
"Wild ducks gather on the banks of the river when spring water from aquifers starts flowing — small fish swim upstream feeding on nutrients rising to the top of the water when this occurs on the water."
This May was the worst flood Ray had ever seen, but he remembers his elders recalling big floods before 1929.
"He said to the elder about the 1929 flood, 'This is a big flood,' and the elder said, 'No, we've had bigger ones than this.'"
Ancestors lost in the flood
Ross Murray has written a book on his Scottish family who settled on the mid coast of NSW in the 1800s. (ABC Mid North Coast: Wiriya Sati)
Perhaps, the elders were referring to the 1857 flood.
Ross Murray's roots run deep in the region, and he discovered newspaper clippings with details about earlier floods while researching his Scottish ancestors for a book he wrote about them.
"Our greatest catastrophe" reads one of the many weathered newspaper clippings from Mr Murray's father's archive, detailing floods from as far back as the 1800s.
Ross Murray has an archive of newspaper clippings that were passed on by his grandmother, detailing floods from as far back as a the 1800s. (Supplied: Ross Murray)
The 1857 floods were also a catastrophe for the Murray family, with one of Ross' ancestors killed while trying to save livestock.
The Murrays had travelled from Scotland to Australia in the 1800s and established farms in the Manning district, between Wingham, Oxley Island and Darawank, and Tinonee.
A newspaper from 1866 revealed how his ancestors were impacted by floods.
"The public punt at Tinonee has gone, and also the pub man's house with its entire contents. One storekeeper at Tinonee lost not less than 2,000 pounds." the newspaper clipping read.
"The reference to the Ferry Inn in Tinonee, which was my great-great uncle's business — John Murray— was entirely submerged, the family barely having time to escape with their lives," Ross said.
"No-one ever really expected that that 1929 flood peak would be exceeded, and, of course, that's exactly what's happened."
A newspaper from 1929 flood in Taree displaying a total of 2,331 points, equivalent to 822mm for the week. (Supplied: Ross Murray)
A newspaper from 1929 recorded the seven-day rainfall total as the equivalent of 822 millimetres.
Ross Murray's grandfather Victor was one of 83 grandchildren born in the Manning Valley, of widow Isabella, who migrated with 10 children. (ABC Mid North Coast: Wiriya Sati)
Ross said, looking through the 1929 reports, there were many features of the floods that didn't seem to change.
"Isolation caused by high water levels and the washing away of bridges and culverts was a huge problem in 1929," he said.
"As was the massive losses of cattle, fencing, hay and farm buildings."
"Residents at both Croki and Old Bar reported continuous streams of furniture, vegetables, cattle carcases, hay and other items carried by the torrent. "
Ross said he wondered what his ancestors would think about the latest floods.
"I think they'd be amazed at how far it came up," he said.
Uncle Russ stands on the damaged banks of the Manning River. (ABC Mid North Coast: Wiriya Sati)
Uncle Russ said that when a flood was coming, the once nomadic people would move to high ground and camp up in the hills.
"We used to move with the seasons. Now we're fixed in one place," he said.
Uncle Russ said the landscape had also changed since he was a child and, as such, the damage from floods was more extensive.
"We see the damage now because I look across the farmland now, and all I see is roofs of houses and water," he said.