Dead cows pinned to barbed wire farm fences. Light aeroplanes washed off runways and bent around trees like rubber. Guinea pigs swimming in storm water, saved by townspeople in tinnies.

Freelance writer and Northern Rivers resident Candida Baker heard and saw it all during the catastrophic flooding on Australia’s east coast earlier this year. 

Talking to Greg Callaghan, deputy editor of Good Weekend, Baker says the power of the water was inconceivable. “Nothing was spared,” she says. “Every single house, every single shop, every single building. The sight of huge shipping containers picked up and chucked around as if some sort of giant had just come along, twisting everything, almost for amusement.”

You can read Candida's story here. 

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