The 2022 NSW Floods

Residents’ photos and testimony submitted to the government inquiry into the devastating NSW floods of 2022 tell raw and powerful stories of the disaster and its aftermath, and expose the impact of climate change.

Between 2020 and 2022, NSW received far above average rainfall, and experienced widespread areas of localised flooding. In late February and early March 2022, persistent heavy rain in north-east NSW broke all records, with some areas recording well over 1 metre of rain.

The Richmond, Hawkesbury–Nepean, Wilsons, Tweed, Brunswick, Clarence, Lower Hunter and Paterson rivers and Wollombi Brook all flooded, inundating properties and whole townships. At Lismore, the floodwaters peaked at 14.4 metres, more than 2 metres above the previous records set in 1954 and 1974.

Tragically, nine lives were lost across the state in the February and March floods.

The inquiry and report

In March 2022 the Premier, the Hon Dominic Perrottet MP, established the NSW Flood Inquiry, commissioned to examine and report on the causes of, planning and preparedness for, response to and recovery from these catastrophic flood events. The report was submitted to the Premier on 29 July 2022.

• 2022 Flood Inquiry Volume Two: Full report (PDF)

The report made 28 recommendations. These included supporting research into climate change; establishing a new deputy commissioner of NSW Police to permanently take on the State Emergency Operations Controller role; and that Resilience NSW become Recovery NSW, a new agency that will be more streamlined and agile to drive recovery in the first 100 days after a disaster.

Much of the information gathered for the report came from residents who were deeply affected by the floods. Many of their responses commented on factors they believed contributed to the impact and severity of the floods, including climate change, development on floodplains and poor drainage.

The inquiry received almost 1500 submissions, most of which are published online.

• 2022 Flood Inquiry

Images submitted to the inquiry

In 2022, records from the inquiry were transferred to NSW State Archives. As part of this process, a selection of images from the written submissions have been made available through this online gallery.

The photographs and other images that accompanied submissions to the NSW Flood Inquiry reveal how people dealt with the floods and their aftermath. Some images capture the terrible loss and trauma suffered by individuals, families and communities, while others illustrate the community response, the rescuing of people from inundated areas, and the massive clean-up after the water had finally receded.

Permission was sought to publish images from the submissions in this online gallery.

The images received by the inquiry vary in file format, image resolution and size. Where possible, the online gallery maintains the images with their original properties.

Using this gallery

Images are divided into six sections, arranged into themes:

• rescue
• external damage
• internal damage
• Lismore Regional Gallery
• clean-up
• community.

Copyright notice

All images contained in this display are subject to copyright and are presented here with permission. The published Final Report of the NSW Flood Inquiry is also copyright. See page 2 of the Summary Report for further details.

Rescue

Video: People being rescued during the NSW floods in 2022 in the Mullumbimby area (submission 1143)

… our neighbours, who are elderly (85 years), were trapped on their kitchen table as the waters rose around them (the waters almost reached the top of the table). They had called the SES about an hour earlier and spoken to someone about their situation, but no-one had come to rescue them. When I discovered this, I called the SES, the police repeatedly, without getting any answer from any of those services. While calling I was walking the street desperately looking for someone with a boat to rescue them, and was lucky enough to find someone and they were rescued. No-one from the SES ever came, although a policeman did turn up 3 DAYS later to check on the couple.’

Susan Heffley, Mullumbimby

External flood damage

Our farm is located in a small gully with a small creek running through the middle. The flood of February/March 2022 has caused severe long-lasting damage, namely it has caused large landslides, it has destroyed roads and farm access.'

Dr Bruno Ros, West Lismore

Internal flood damage

If I was to sum it all up, I was scared, hungry, mentally lost, using a bucket as a toilet and smelling like a hobo. If you have not been through it you have no idea, you would be in the kayak and there is spiders and bugs all over it trying to survive. No land for the dogs to take a crap!’

Bronwyn Carmichael, Ballina

Lismore Regional Gallery

‘While this submission obviously is most pertinent to the situation in Lismore, it is an issue worthy of considering across New South Wales in the context of increased frequency, and greater scale of environmental disasters ...

A major issue that needs to be considered is how safely can the gallery and the museum store and display cultural material.

It goes without saying that these items of cultural heritage can never be replaced, and so great thought needs to be had as to how to safely care for this material into the future.

A key issue for the whole cultural sector in Lismore is where will these permanent collection items be stored … if there is a similar flood in the future … The untold damage to the museum and gallery collections should never happen again.’

Brett Adlington, CEO Museum and Galleries NSW

Clean up

We were also one of the many houses affected by the diesel and oil spills from the sugar mill, although luckily we were one of the least affected. The community set up a residents shop (free) at the local hall and has provided support and food for weeks now. The army has come and gone, they were a great help when they came through a few times, and very kind to our children.’

Lucy Garland, Broadwater

Community

Thanks to funding from our Local member Leslie Williams and a huge effort from one of our residents in pushing grants through we were able to put on a flood party at the end of May ’21. We held the event at the Fire station, hired a marquee and had a bush dance for the community. You could see the change in everyone immediately. it was like every had a chance to come together and say this is it we can now get on with our lives. It was an important event to help the community start to heal.’

Kingsley Searle, Port Macquarie