Dorothea Mackellar summed it up beautifully when she wrote about our continent's wild weather in her 1908 poem My Country.
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It's an enduring piece of prose but not a disclaimer for our political representatives to hide behind.
As the Central West grapples with the enormity of this week's floods, newspaper editors from across the region are asking what our leaders, our lawmakers, plan to do to protect the disaster-weary Australians who call the bush home.
Climate change is happening now. Our region is suffering its effects now. The time for this conversation is now.
An open letter to the decision makers in Canberra
A little over two and a half years ago, in the midst of a particularly vicious drought, water catchments for the cities of Bathurst, Orange and Dubbo were all but empty.
These regional cities and their many neighbouring communities were mere months away from running out of water.
This week this already saturated region has been devastated by an extreme abundance of what was only recently so scarce.
Though the sheer scale of the ongoing flood disaster will take some time to become clear, its impact on lives and homes, the destruction and displacement is already heartbreaking.
Our thoughts are with those who have suffered loss and trauma.
Our gratitude is with those working hard to save lives and keep us safe.
As was the case through the drought, the pandemic and such calamity that came before them, our communities continue to pull together and support each other.
Ours is a stoic region; we mastered resilience long before it became a buzzword.
Now, though, we need our leaders at all levels of government to step up.
Pledges of support to recover, rebuild and re-home are both welcome and necessary.
Our people are hurting and in need of immediate help.
We are, of course, grateful for the hand up and the kindness with which it is offered.
The short window of time between devastating drought and flood has revealed inescapable truths about how unprepared we are to deal with these climate extremes.
However, more needs to be done.
Beyond the physical and structural toll a disaster of such proportions takes on a community, the mental welfare and wellbeing of everyone involved has to be addressed.
In the words of Eugowra's Central Hotel publican John Den: "The future is the problem and mental health is going to be a long-term problem."
The short window of time between devastating drought and flood has revealed inescapable truths about how unprepared we are to deal with these climate extremes, extremes that are predicted to become more prevalent.
It is not acceptable that in the past two and a half years, our region has faced:
- the real and imminent risk of insufficient water;
- the need to boil water due to failing water treatment infrastructure leaving thousands without drinkable water for weeks;
- do not flush alerts due to inundated sewerage infrastructure;
- crumbling local roads and, state and national highways;
- failing gas lines leaving thousands without heating or hot water for days; and,
- multiple evacuations of flood-prone areas housing some of our most vulnerable residents.
All of these issues are directly related to the climate events we have endured in a little over two and a half years, none in relation to this past week's disaster.
Ours is a growing region. An increasing population is only going to put more pressure on this infrastructure.
It will also raise questions about planning and development.
Drought, floods, bushfires all point to a need for planning to pay greater heed to the extremes of our climate. This lesson was learnt in the aftermath of the Black Summer bushfires, reiterated following the Lismore flood and again here this week.
How we manage water - in times of scarcity, extreme abundance and all times in between - must also come under heavy scrutiny. So must how we protect communities and infrastructure. Without the Bathurst flood mitigation levees, this already traumatic week could have been significantly worse.
The federal government was elected on a platform that made tackling climate change a priority. Understandably, its focus has been on energy policy and carbon reliance. What we have seen here in the Central West and West of NSW tells us clearly this focus must broaden to include practical solutions to ensure the ongoing sustainability and liveability of our cities and towns.
There is a pressing need for a transparent conversation about what can and should be done now to protect our communities from the ravages of these weather extremes.
We call on all levels of government to start that conversation immediately.
