As the River Murray rose, a private levee that had just been built broke under the weight of the water.
The levee broke late Wednesday, letting floodwaters into valuable land for dairy cows to graze. The low areas quickly filled up with murky water and the occasional carp.
All of the people who came to help knew someone at the Smart Dairy, which needed extra help protecting one of the farmhouses.
Steve Hein, who is the president of the Mypolonga Progress Association (Mypolonga Community on Facebook), said that the small town has been great during the flood crisis.
“Our rallying cry is that Mypo, Wall Flat, and Toora are strong and tough, and every day of the week shows that this is true. “Every day, people in the community, residents, and shackies live up to that,” he said.
“We were putting sandbags around the houses on the farm, and the people in Mypolonga and the nearby towns have been so helpful throughout the whole process. Yesterday, about 20 people came to help, and then the Mypolonga cricket club came and helped make about 400 sandbags and add to the stockpile.
“The community has been great, with people helping each other and watching out for each other.”
The first group of people who came to help fill sandbags at 1 p.m. were all different ages. (Senior reporter Lauren Thomson, in the middle, also helped fill and move sandbags.)
It was the fourth working bee in the past month.
The flood peak was expected to affect most of the Smarts’ 250-hectare property, so efforts were made to move the milking robots. Since then, attention has turned to a house on the property that was in danger because water kept coming in from the Murray.
David Smart, who owns a dairy farm, spent more than $100,000 to protect it from the growing Murray River. But the three-meter-high levee that had just been built broke, and there is no government grant money to cover the cost of the levee, the loss of milking time, and other costs like extra haylage because there isn’t enough grass.
Floods cost Smart Dairy a lot of money, so they decided to leave the business. The cows and milking systems have been sold.
