Recovering from disaster is about perspective, according to Paul Weir.
In the past two years, Paul and his family have worked hard to recover from floods that devastated the Northern Rivers region of NSW in late February 2022 and March 2022.
The entire family farm went under water and 130 cows were lost to floodwater.
“We had insurance,” Paul said.
“We were dairy farmers.
“As long as we could keep milking cows, we would have a monthly payment.
“Cash flow is king in any business.”
Greg McNamara, who lived 15km away at Goolmangar, told Paul to move his remaining cows to his farm where they could be milked. Unlike at the Weir farm, the generator at the McNamara farm was still working.
Greg set aside a 50-acre paddock, and Paul and Sharon Weir moved 170 dairy cows to his farm. They set up hay feeders in the paddock.
“We had to treat a lot of them for mastitis and we spent the first four days dumping the milk,” Paul said.
“But it gave us something to do.
“With our employees, we turned up twice a day at Greg’s place, helped him milk his cows, then milked our cows.
“We milked at Greg’s place for months.”
Paul and Sharon haven’t re-opened their fertiliser business in Lismore. After the floodwater receded, one of their employees spent three weeks in a Bobcat, clearing what the flood had left behind.
“All assets at the fertiliser business were destroyed,” Paul said.
“That industrial estate is normally above flood level. It went under by 1.8 metres.”
The milk income helped Paul and Sharon to continue to employ their workers, as they built fences, laneways and, eventually, undertook pasture renovation.
They also built new infrastructure above the 2022 flood height.
“I had enough staff before the flood to milk 400 cows,” Paul said.
“So we were back to 130 cows, and we were overstaffed, and we made the decision to keep them on because we needed that manpower to do the work.
“We did all the fencing, the laneways and pasture renovation ourselves. We built over 10km of fences.
“We invested in submersible pumps and put irrigation pipes underground.
“Every building has had to be fixed, repaired or replaced. The feedpad is now higher.
“It all cost us a lot of money.
“We closed the fertiliser business permanently, so we could focus on the dairy.
“The dairy is where our heart is. We want to expand the farm to milk 700 cows.”
The farm’s irrigation plant wasn’t insured. The herringbone dairy was inundated. The generator at the dairy was standing in water.
Their sons pitched in to help as much as they could. Matthew was already working on the farm. Samuel, working in Victoria, took six months leave without pay to help his parents.
Matthew and Aidan lost their houses in the floods and had to rebuild them. Matthew also lost his new Toyota four-wheel drive.
It took months for the Weir family to make their house and farm operational. While it took two weeks for electricity to be restored, it took months to get all electrical equipment certified before it could be used.
“It’s all about perspective for me,” Paul said.
“And we need to keep our dark days in perspective.
“The next morning, Aidan and I were able to wade to the dairy and fire up the tractor to feed the cows.
“We had lost a lot. But I know many friends who lost everything — their house, car, job, their kids lost their school.
“The whole fabric of our society was lost.”
In the past two years, Paul and Sharon have spent more than $1 million of their own money, and $2.5 million paid by their insurance company. Government assistance grants covered the balance to $4.5 million total recovery cost so far.
“The government grants were fine and well meant, but we utilised that in the first month,” Paul said.
“It’s the same amount for everyone, whether they milk 80 cows or 700 cows.”
Help rolled into the region from other farmers, in the shape of donated hay and silage, food, fuel, and manpower to clean buildings and clear fences and trees.
“I received hundreds of phone calls from other farmers across Australia,” Paul said.
“What can we do to help? They arrived on the farm with food and fuel. They sent hay.
“Fuel, bread and milk were critical — all our normal businesses were gone.”
There were fuel shortages across the region and a wait of 2.5km in line at the service stations that were open.
Paul encouraged ADC2024 attendees to reach out to other people and offer help.
“Reach out to people. Your phone call may make the difference to them,” he said.
“At the time, I thought people were wasting their time asking me if I was okay.
“You need to reach out to people and admit you need help.
“I know people who are traumatised when they hear the sound of rain on their roof. There are people who haven’t been able to rebuild their homes.”
Jason Bake, a dairy farmer at Crossmaglen, south of Coffs Harbour, phoned Paul soon after the flood occurred, and has maintained that contact. It is a connection that Paul recognises as life-saving.
Jason and his family have their own experiences of floods on their family farm, Bangalara Dairies.
“He started phoning me in that first week and he phoned me regularly, to make sure I was okay,” Paul said.
“I still hear from him — a phone call or a text message to check in with me.
“Coming back from any kind of disaster takes time.
“But you need to take that first step. Focus on controlling what you can.
“Talk to family and friends. You’re no good to anybody if your mental health is no good.”
Paul recognised there were mental health problems within his community, mostly by the silences and the grief expressed in conversations that were face to face or over the telephone.
“Industry support was really good,” Paul said.
“Mental health issues came to the fore in our community.
“Everything feels like it’s against you, especially for those first six months.
“The voices in my head said, ‘I did this, I should’ve done that’.
“Dairy Australia stepped up and sent counsellors to our region. These counsellors visited our farm and other farms.
“Norco offered similar help and support.
“Other farmers from across Australia reached out to people offering emotional and psychological support.”
One of the biggest drains on Paul’s time and emotional energy post-flood was the need to validate his claims.
“Spending days in the office and on my phone dealing with insurance companies was a massive time restraint and hard work,” Paul said.
“I had to travel to do anything, whether it was dealing with the insurance company or Services Australia.
“You have to jump through hoops.
“When you’ve lost all your paperwork and records, you have to get copies and that takes hours and days.
“It takes time to get quotes for what machinery was worth.
“And we were in the pandemic and the prices increased on everything that needed replacing.
“For example, we had a tractor that was insured for $70,000. Because of supply chain issues, it was a lot more expensive to replace. It cost us $120,000.”
Paul said thousands of people are still waiting for decisions about land use, permission to rebuild and — the big one — insurance companies that have stalled processing claims.
His own cost for insurance cover has increased three-fold.
“In the last 12 months, it’s gone up by $30,000,” Paul said.
“For three years, we paid $24,000 each year. Now it costs us $72,000.
“Insurance only has to save you once. It would’ve been a long, hard slow slog and I wouldn’t be as jovial if we hadn’t had it.
“Review your insurance policies. I can’t stress that enough.
“As insurance becomes unaffordable, people won’t be able to recover.”