Cyclone Seroja two years on: Northampton Shire president Liz Sudlow on the personal and professional battles

On a personal level on our farm, we sustained lots of damage to fences, sheds and houses. Our first priority was fixing the fences along the highway so that stock didn’t get out. The North West Coastal Highway runs through the middle of our property and the date of the cyclone coincided with the middle of a busy school holiday period, so there was increased traffic. We’re still negotiating with insurance over two houses. Although they are old, they’ve been well maintained and were well insured but are proving challenging to repair. We also have two units in a strata holiday complex in Kalbarri and my husband is the chairperson of the strata group. Liaising with the other 14 owners, the insurance and the builder to get a suitable outcome has been incredibly difficult. Dealing with insurance and builders can easily tip you over the edge. One of the biggest challenges with rebuilding is the current economic circumstances. The cost of building has skyrocketed over the last two years. Workforce shortages and wait times on goods and services are like nothing we have experienced in recent times. From a Shire of Northampton perspective, dealing with the challenges of recovery has been all-consuming. Like most regional local governments, we operate with a constrained budget and with limited staff. Dealing with emergency management is a responsibility of local government that is largely unrealistic. The extra responsibilities placed on staff members in Northampton and Kalbarri has been enormous, particularly in that early period when everything was chaotic and most of the community was in shock. The majority of shire staff in Kalbarri and Northampton are long-term community members and their commitment to our shire over the last two years has been amazing. Liaising with State and Federal governments and the time that it takes to achieve outcomes, particularly in the current climate, has been frustrating, particularly for the Kalbarri community where the cyclone made landfall and caused the most destruction. The recent announcement of $900,000 from the State Government to the Shire of Northampton is obviously welcome. This is part of a $9.2 million package across the 16 local governments affected by cyclone Seroja. However, when compared to the subsequent announcement of $38 million to provide jobs for DFES staff, and when the majority of the $104 million originally announced hasn’t been spent, it does feel a little like we’ve been drip fed. If there’s a positive, it’s reiterated to me that you have to be tough to live in the bush.