Former Forbes resident Marie Daymond remembers the flooding from 1952

Mrs Daymond, formerly Redfern, was born and raised in Forbes, and still remembers the devastation caused by the inundation of water to the town, even though she was just a young child at the time.

"I remember being warned that the flood was coming for days and then all of a sudden, you could see this wall of water, which just seemed to be there before anyone knew it," Mrs Daymond said.

"It was just like a big wall of water coming and it was pretty scary, we hadn't seen anything like that before.

"In some places the water came up as high as above the windows."

Mrs Daymond said that her and her family lived at one of the higher points in the town, and thus their house was unaffected by flood water, but subsequently, the home became a refuge for other locals who were directly affected.

"They came to our place, and us kids thought it was pretty good having all these people living with us, we got to sleep on the floor or somewhere which was the most unusual thing to be doing at the time," she said.

Though the floods were obviously destructive, Mrs Daymond said that at the time, she couldn't help but focus on the excitement that came with sharing their home with other townspeople.

"It was a big adventure for us as kids, we had lots of people coming and going with their animals and things," she said.

"We had a little animal rescue sanctuary, because we had a big yard in the back for chooks."

As well as having people and animals utilising the Redfern house for refuge during the floods, Mrs Daymond said that the excitement remained for a few weeks, as children were unable to go back to school until floodwater subsided.

"We had a bit of a holiday for a while ... because the water was lying around in a few places for up to six weeks," she said.

Though Mrs Daymond looked back on these times with fond memories, she said she still feels for the people currently living in Forbes, especially her brother and sister.

"Now that the landscape has changed, it hopefully won't be as bad as it was back then," Mrs Daymond said.

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