Western Sydney Communities Impacted by Back-to-Back Floods

Rhiannon Phillips, 27, manager of a regenerative farm in North Richmond, NSW, has seen the impacts of record breaking floods for two consecutive years. The flood waters caused damage to the soil and all of the fruit and vegetable crops grown on their 1-acre sustainable market garden. When the floodwaters rose, Rhiannon stayed on the property and lost access to internet, phone service, had no power, water or food. “It was crazy to be on a farm with no power and no water strangely, and no food even though you’ve just spent your life growing crops - there is no food around. It’s nothing like I’d experience before”

This year, Rhiannon saw floodwater levels rise to 14 metres high on the farm, 2 metres higher than 2021.

“In terms of our area having two major floods in a short time period like this. It’s crazy, I never thought it would happen, I was thinking maybe in the next 10 years we’d have another one and we could prepare for it. It’s pretty scary knowing that we just can’t even predict when it’s going to happen now”.

Rhiannon believes Australians could be doing more to support sustainable agriculture, “buying local produce and supporting local farmers to be doing the correct practices for their local area. Living more sustainably is a way that any individual can help our climate crisis, if you take action for yourself it makes a huge difference.”