Significant Flooding Event
on 15 January, 2024
Parramatta: A Dictionary of Place and Memory - S
The river foreshore is closed off.
To measure the scale of flooding, I look for roofs.
I can see the lid of the bin that should be on the walkway. The rest has disappeared. There are two pedestrian bridges low to the water. They are now both underneath the river.
There are no park benches on the banks. It is all water, and the river I know to be peaceful and slow is moving fast.
Whose task is it to clean up? After each of these flooding events, debris is caught in the bridges, the innards of the river left to dry on the banks.
I saw the river yesterday. Has there really been this much rain overnight? But it has rained on and off this past week, and the ground is waterlogged.
I miss Tamworth suddenly. I miss being conscious of space, and what’s happening in my surrounds. My colleagues would have been able to tell me how many millimetres overnight and what is happening around the town.
My environmental consciousness here has to do entirely with the river. It is the barometer of what’s happening with the sky, water, and the ground.
