Floodwaters spilled throughout town a little more than a week ago, inundating vast swathes of areas including homes, farms and the town centre.
With floods in 2011 peaking at 115.4m (AHD), this time the torrent came in even higher about 115.75m (AHD).
As enormous volumes of water spread throughout the area, dozens of people were putting in heroic efforts to help rescue those who were stuck and stranded.
Bruce was one of the people out there well into the night, and he shared some of his stories.
“How could you possibly describe it,” Bruce said.
“I was on Dingee Rd watching the water come up. There were other cars and people there.
“A car pulled up and a girl jumped out and headed diagonally across a dry paddock and then into a flooded paddock.
“I asked her sister who was there with us ‘where is she going’, and she replied ‘she is going to get mum and dad out, they are going to walk out’. I remember thinking that’s just crazy.”
Bruce went and got his loader and went out to pick them up. While he was doing that, another person who had gone in to help had gotten stuck.
“I got back there and started picking people over the fence,” Bruce said.
“By that stage there were guys in tinnies bringing people over and dropping them off at some high ground, too.
“I did that for probably 45 minutes before it got too deep.”
With the loader not able to get through the water, Bruce and friend used a tractor and a hay trailer to continue their rescue efforts.
Bruce, his friend and group people, including some in tinnies, went back to help more people who were stuck.
“We might have brought 40 or 50 people out,” Bruce said.
Later in the night, past 10pm, they went into the town centre.
More groups of people in tinnies were helping with rescues, and they helped get people onto Bruce and his friend’s trailer.
Bruce specifically recalled rescuing two men who had been left waiting for help that had not yet come.
“They had rung up long before they were flooded requesting assistance to be evacuated out. They were told that someone was coming to get them, but nobody had come to help,” Bruce said.
“We only saw a torch shining through a window, so we went to see what was happening. We used a boat and helped get him onto the trailer.
“One of the other blokes had been sitting there since 11am with his bag packed at the front door waiting, and it was 1.30am when we picked him up.”
Later on, a guy in a tinnie came roaring up to the trailer.
“He had picked up a young woman and she had a toddler in her arms, and that was all she had,” Bruce said.
“She had brough nothing with her — no baby bag, no phone no torch, no anything. The bloke in the boat said she had just come running out of one of the houses.
“People were scared. The water was just coming up that fast and moving that fast, people saw an opportunity to get out and they wanted out, we just happened to be there.”
Rescue efforts went well into the evening, with Bruce and his friend keeping on going until after 3am.
They were out there again the next day helping more people who were either stuck or needed assistance at home.
Bruce, his friend and all of the others out there that night helped dozens of people and it is hard to find a better word than heroic to describe all of their efforts.
“It was something we just wanted to do to help people out,” Bruce said.
18°C