Extreme floodwaters have wiped out a bridge and sections of a main road heading up Lees Valley, cutting off a small rural farming community near Oxford.
By Digby Werthmuller
William Hellewell, who farms sheep, beef and deer up the valley, told 1 NEWS the Whistler Bridge - one of the main crossing points in the Valley - had collapsed at one end by the time he arrived at 5.30am on Sunday morning.
“It’s less than ideal but as far as I know, my stock are healthy and fine,” Hellewell said.
Further up the valley Stuart Feary and his friend Stewart Dalzell were stopped in their tracks after discovering a whole section of the main road had slipped away from its banks.
“Me and my mate went for a drive after we’d finished work for a bit of a nozy, and we came round a corner and saw a huge slip,” Feary told 1 NEWS.
“I’ve never seen a slip of this magnitude before.”
Civil Defence has arranged for a helicopter to fly in supplies of fresh water and prescription medicine later today and will continue to do so until road access can be restored to the five isolated properties at Mt Pemberton Station.
Some cut off residents have chartered their own additional flights to get supplies and people in and out of the area.
Feary says the remote location of the slip in the road means getting resources out to fix it will take time.
“They’ll have to cut into the hill to make another corner where there is a hillside," he said.
"It’s a big operation either way."
Feary says most farm households living in areas prone to extreme weather conditions are semi-set for events like this, often with generators for power and log burners for heat.
“Would be great to get some beers flown in for us,” Hellewell said.
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