In the immediate aftermath, Bishop Michael Kennedy launched a Flood Appeal, inviting the people of the Diocese to stand with their neighbours in the Manning and surrounding regions. The response was generous and swift. More than $160,000 was raised in a tangible sign of solidarity from communities near and far.  

But alongside the financial support was something less visible, and just as vital: presence.  

Sr Gaye Lennon RSM, Rural Ministry Partner within the Mission and Evangelisation team, travelled into the flood-affected communities in the days and weeks that followed. Six months on, she is still there. Supporting parishes, farmers and families as they slowly rebuild their lives.  

Her ministry is both practical and pastoral. She has helped distribute funds from the Bishop’s Flood Appeal to those most in need. She has sat at kitchen tables. She has listened to families. She created small gatherings to support individuals and families as they find their way forward. Through her engagement with St Vincent de Paul in Taree and the Coopernook Post Office, she has built connections across the region. She has returned phone calls simply to check in. 

“People come and then they leave,” one dairy farmer told her. “Sometimes we just need someone to talk to.”  

Sr Gaye stayed.  

Recovery, she says, is not linear.  

“Some people are not yet back in their homes. Some dairy farms are not producing what they did beforehand and may never do so.”  

For others, small milestones – like a repaired fence, or sense of routine, or the first night back in their own bed - matter.   

But emotionally, the impact lingers.  

“There are people still living in homes without walls, or in sheds while they wait. When it rains, there is still anxiety. People carry the memory of hearing their animals dying, of the smell of the floodwaters. When it rains there is still anxiety.”  

And yet, signs of grace have appeared in unexpected places.  

Nearly everyone who received support from the appeal expressed the same sentiment:  

There is someone else who needs it more than me.  

“There is a deep concern for one another,” she reflects. “A strong sense of hospitality. People offering homes and time and listening.”  

She recalls a conversation with a teenage girl about safe spaces. The girl told her that her bedroom had once been that space, until the floods took it. Now, she said, she had found her safe space in a friend.  

“The floods brought a deep bonding within the community and concern for one another,” Sr Gaye said.  

While generosity has been strong, practical challenges remain.  

Government funding processes are slow. Savings have been exhausted. Some families may never return to where they once were - financially or emotionally.  

“People want to feel safe again. They want to be settled in their community,” she says. “For some, that will take years.”  

During this time, Sr Gaye continues to visit and to listen.  

Before his death, Pope Francis said: “Do not undervalue the gift of presence.”  

That, she believes, is what is most needed now.  

“We see the images on the news for a few nights,” she says. “But this story isn’t over. The need for pastoral accompaniment is ongoing.”  

If she could share one message with the community six months on, it would be simple:  

“Try to live with hope. You have each other. You have good people around you. And ask for help if you need it.”  

For Sr Gaye herself, the journey has been incredibly personal.  

“I feel blessed,” she says. “To have met these people. To have walked with them in some way. It has been a grace-filled and challenging part of my last year.”