Waiting for the world in colour, Day 2

7mm
The world is quiet, the relentless thrum stopped,
the vociferous sea takes over, the birds quiet,
a pair of Galahs scoot into the rough wood panelling.

In a break in the rain, I check the estuary, trashed.
find a plastic tray and collect the smaller plastics,
heaps of polystyrene that breaks up so easily,
a threat to wildlife due to its toxicity and eagerness
to contaminate the environment. Polystyrene
packaging will be banned nationally from 2022.
I was picking up smaller and smaller pieces, entropy
from boogie boards and eskies, cheap throwaway-aways
made of plastics that should be banned.

While labouring to collect rubbish including tyres, a dozen
speeding White-throated Needletail Swifts, fly acrobatically
overhead, their lines of flight gratuitous beauty.
Updated with the latest flooding news, roads closed south,
a fascination seeing the golf course on Stuart Island from above,
the fairways a delta of streams between trees. Auntie Roseina Boston
was born under Lantana on the island. Uncle Gary Williams remembers
playing here as a boy, fishing and crabbing. Families were forcibly
removed from this Gumbaynggirr reserve, in the fifties, the island floods.

We are lucky, Valla not too badly hit, so far.

~

The colours in Jagun are prophetic. We see how Oyster Creek is looking.
And on the return find colours resurrected.
~

Swollen rivers, burst banks, daring residents canoeing in the brown waters, properties destroyed and spectators watching on in disbelief. For one couple not only were their wedding plans ruined but they also had to watch their home being swept down the Manning River. A scene that has now been shared with news sites around the world. www.nambuccaguardian.com.au

A brief reprieve in the rain today gave residents in Macksville and the wider Nambucca Valley a chance to survey the damage. Water gushed through homes and businesses, sections of road were destroyed and the SES responded to hundreds of calls for help. NBN News