One week on: A recap on the Bathurst floods

While the floodwaters have all but subsided now, Bathurst was smashed by 86.4 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday, November 14, the wettest 24-hour period in a quarter of a century.

The downpour was enough to sever access to roads across the city, the lower level bridge on Hereford Street, not surprisingly closed early. By lunch time the Great Western Highway at Kelso also closed as a result of flooding, something the city hasn't seen since August 1998.

Roads across the local government area also suffered significant damage, with Bathurst mayor Robert Taylor saying it will take six months to fix some of them.

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The worst affected roads include Tarana Road near Salt Walter Creek, with Cr Taylor believing 200 metres of road has been completely washed away.

Almost 30 metres of Freemantle Road was washed away too, near Frog Hollow, on the outskirts of Eglinton.

Cr Taylor said the work to fix that will be extensive and will take "weeks" to repair but motorists are currently utilising an old one-way bridge to get through.

In order to get Rivulet Road back open, Cr Taylor said 600 tonnes of dirt was brought in to fill in the damaged road.

But the major concern came when the Bureau of Meteorology put out an alert warning that levees could break as a result of the downpour.

Thankfully that never eventuated.

State Emergency Service (SES) spokesperson David Rankine said at the time while the Macquarie River was expected to peak at seven metres, which would have toppled the 1998 flood record, the bureau was misinformed about the risk to the levees and later retracted its alert.

"Talking to council's engineers and also looking at the information from previous flooding, the seven-metre height is at no risk of overtopping any of the levees, even at their low points around town," he said on Monday.

Despite this, Bathurst Regional Council undertook works to close low points in the levee system on the Kelso side of the Macquarie River at Hereford Street, Church Lane and Stephens Lanes.

Work also occurred on Russell Street near Alpha Street in Bathurst, all of which was undertaken in anticipation of major flooding Monday afternoon.

Cr Taylor told the Western Advocate that the works were just a precaution and council "is confident the levees will do their job."

In the end the river peaked well below the seven metre forecast (it registered 6.65m on Monday afternoon) and while the Bathurst region sustained damage to roads, sporting fields and at least one business in Perthville, no lives or homes were lost, and there was plenty to be thankful about.

The city only had to look west to communities such as Forbes and Eugowra to see how fortunate Bathurst was.

Deputy mayor Ben Fry said the city's flood management plan is a big reason why.

"Over the last 30 years, Bathurst has employed a very complex, strategised levee system and we're really fortunate to have such a good flood mitigation infrastructure set in our city," deputy mayor Ben Fry said.

"Other towns around the region aren't as fortunate as us and we won't see major damage to private property like those towns will.

"We're very fortunate in that way that we're only seeing road closures and damage to road infrastructure. And while that's not good and we have to find cash to fix those, I suppose it's a small price to pay in lieu of lives or personal property."

Still he said the city is not yet out of the woods.

"The forecast for summer is for above average rainfall and, after Bathurst has already had four flooding events in excess of four metres in the past 60 days, it is likely more flooding will occur," Cr Fry said.

"This will put more pressure on the community and, in particular, the road network."

"With an already soaked catchment, we're looking like the situation could potentially continue this way well into December," Cry Fry said.

"It's not a good situation to be in and obviously we are looking for support in any way we can from other levels of government," he said.

A number of businesses and organisations across Bathurst were affected by flooding, such as Bedwells Feed Barn on the Vale Road, as they lost between $50,000-$100,000 worth of stock because it was exposed to floodwaters.

Bathurst hockey clubs also had their storage containers at the Cooke Hockey Complex inundated with water, which resulted in St Pat's binning eight goal keeper kits worth over $10,000.

One of the worst affected locations in Bathurst was Kennerson Park, the home of greyhound racing.

The track looked as if it had been hit by a cyclone, with numerous concrete slabs snapped in two, a massive water tank moving 20 metres, fencing bent and twisted, and electrically-operated dog boxes left unusable.

Due to the extensive damage, greyhound racing has been suspended in Bathurst for the rest of the year and it remains uncertain when or if it will reopen.

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