The severe flooding that has ravaged parts of Australia’s New South Wales and Victoria has left a trail of destruction in its wake, with caravan parks and over 100 national parks remaining closed.
The McLean Beach holiday park in Deniliquin, which sits on the state’s largest inland beach, was one of the worst affected. In November, the park was swallowed by the Edward River in the biggest flood to hit the town since 1956, according to a report by The Guardian.
Only six cabins, which sit on stilts, escaped damage. The park’s co-owner, Jacquie Mealing, described the area as feeling like a “disaster zone” and said that it’s not something they will come back from quickly.
The floods have caused widespread damage to the infrastructure, and the debris-filled waterholes have made some areas unsafe for swimming. Piles of rubbish are scattered between the water-damaged caravans and cabins. The showers in the amenity blocks are gone.
There are discarded furniture, moldy mattresses, pushbikes, sheets of tin, and old timber. The high-water mark from the flood is several meters up on trees, and some of the taller buildings – smaller buildings were completely submerged.
The park, which would usually see thousands of visitors over the holiday season, still needs to be opened to casual holidaymakers. Mealing and her team spent the weeks after the flood canceling holiday bookings, resulting in a revenue loss of about $230,000.
However, that loss has tripled once you add in the cost of rebuilding and broader business impacts. This story is repeated at riverside caravan parks along the Murray River, many of which rely on the sale of annual sites – year-long leases of powered caravan sites or cabins. But months of closures due to flooding has made those arrangements impossible.
It’s not just caravan parks affected. As of Thursday, 86 national parks across NSW, 29 in Victoria have also closed, and 48 have partial closures in place. The closures have also hurt the local economy as the tourists who would typically visit the park over the Christmas holidays also support local businesses.