When the Going Gets Tough, Country People Stick Together

It's been very eventful around here in the last week. Last Thursday there was an absolute deluge of rain in Albury resulting in Emily's new childcare centre being evacuated. We had a reprieve on Friday and thank God because thanks to the rain the shop had been dead all week. I couldn't even bribe people to come in with new WALNUT gumboots on sale.

Saturday came and the deluge returned. Albury has pretty good levy banks and drainage but my birth town of Urana 1 1/2 hours North West of Albury was hit hard and Sunday morning and so they began building up the levy at the nearby Columbo Creek.

Monday dawned and the sun came out, but the news came through that the levy at Columbo Creek had burst and the water was headed to the town.

This is the town yesterday aftenoon .....

I've never seen Urana drenched like this in all my 36 years. It is certainly higher than the 1982 floods I remember as a kid which came halfway up our driveway but never reached the farmhouse. It's definitely higher than the 1942 floods that the oldies are talking about in town.

Urana is a resilient town. It was once the epicentre of sheep and wheat trade in the district however with the removal of the railway it has slowly declined to a small village of 400. The people that remain are strong and carry a "she'll be right" attitude. Our old neighbour who is now in her 70's said "oh it's just a bit of water" when asked to evacuate last night.

I love this photo posted of one of the locals today on Facebook. Says it all really....

When you get lemons, make lemonade.....or row row row your boat.

Last night they took a vote in the town meeting as to whether they should evacuate and it was a unanimous no. The water began to subside today but they have a long way till their out of the woods. More water isexpected to move to the Billabong and Lake Urana and that will cause more flooding towards to end of the week. Then the clean up begins.

Country people stick together in times like this. They don't care for politics or who "should" be doing what. They just get on with it, they just do what has to be done. They're very matter of fact about it and I love it. There's no bullshit. They say it how it is and they do what has to be done.

Then they all go off to the pub afterwards for a beer.