Farmers in the Lismore region are back to work as rain subsides, though flooding from the Wilsons River continues to impact areas like Marom Creek. While some floodplains are showing signs of receding, water levels remain a concern. Adriane Reardon reports from Marom Creek.
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00:00So we were on our way to Corakay from Lismore, there's some major flooding going on down
00:07there along the Richmond River and on the way we ran into Marram Creek cattle farmer
00:13Tony Ripon and we pulled over and he was saying don't go that way, you won't be able to get
00:18through the Corakay anyway but we got chatting and he's here actually drafting his cattle.
00:23This is his property, it's completely inundated with water.
00:28He said that he had plenty of time to move his cattle out, they were here last week he
00:33moved them up to higher ground so they're all good, he shares cattle with his father.
00:38He's brought some of them back here into these yards to draft them, basically getting ready
00:43for the week ahead.
00:44So operations are kind of normal for Tony Ripon at the moment, he's drafting these cattle
00:51ready for sale.
00:52He got a phone call during our interview as well, the casino sales are going ahead on
00:57Wednesday and I asked him why is that so significant and he basically said we're getting
01:01back to normal.
01:02He said the flood levels here are receding, the cattle are in pretty good condition, if
01:07that water recedes as well that is a good thing in terms of his cattle having enough
01:12feed.
01:13But things are doing okay, especially considering he experienced the 2022 floods and he was
01:20just thankful that he had enough notice to prepare.
01:232022 was devastating, I mean I saw plenty out there but we're on the edge of it and
01:28we got our cattle out and got out of it, the devastation out here with the cattle was unbelievable,
01:32whole herds went.
01:34So this has been, we started shifting cattle Wednesday and the water didn't come until
01:39Friday so we had days, so although we got pushed around a bit in the wind, it was nowhere
01:45near 2022, it was just off the Richter.
01:49It was very slow moving and it was a little bit like, is it really coming?
01:53And then the rain started, but we had days and days and days to handle everything, it
01:57was pretty good this time.
01:58So Marram Creek isn't far from Lismore, we were expecting about 15 to 50 mils to fall
02:03today, a lot of the rivers in the area were going down, there was a bit of concern that
02:08they might swell up again because of the rain, it's been really on and off all day but as
02:12Tony Rippon, the farmer that I just spoke to before put it, as long as the waters continue
02:17to recede and there's not much heavy rainfall to come, they should be, I guess in a nutshell,
02:24out of the woods.