In a new series, NBN News is highlighting the efforts to rebuild the flood-ravaged Northern Rivers community. Here, Josephine Shannon and Olivia Grace-Curran examine the trauma children as young as three are expressing through play.
Preschoolers who experienced one of the worst natural disasters in Australian history are reenacting their families’ frantic escapes from floodwaters in the playground as their young brains continue to process the catastrophe.
Early-learning educators in the Northern Rivers are reporting children between three and five communicating the February and March flooding with one another through art, craft and play.
Assistant Director at Evans Head-Woodburn Preschool, Kath Gillespie, said the event and subsequent displacement have had a huge impact on the age group.
Children in the NSN Northern Rivers are expressing their trauma from the floods through play, educators say.
“If they’re not talking about [the flood], they’re often enacting it… they’ll be knocking buildings over… building up a tower, knock that over because ‘my house got knocked over’,” Gillespie said.
“Or if they’re playing… ‘quick, jump in the boat, quick everyone, jump in the boat! The flood is coming!
We do see a lot of that coming out in their play and that’s how they’re processing it, their trauma.”
At East Lismore Community Preschool, Director Sonya McPherson says it’s a similar story.
Major flooding in Lismore, northern NSW, on March 31, 2022. (Getty)
Children are often building “walls” around their pretend towns and taking their friends to safety as they evacuate from the “flood”.
“We see it weekly in drawings, in how they play. They will draw where the river is, where the river came to their nan’s house… where their old house was,” McPherson said.
“They talk about things that they miss that they’ve lost… places that they can’t go anymore.
“You’ll have a child say ‘when is my birthday?’… and ask, “Is it going to flood again before my birthday?”
Assistant Director at Evans Head-Woodburn Preschool, Kath Gillespie, said kids as young as three have been impacted.
Half the kids at preschool lost everything in floods
Around 40 children – or half the enrolments – at Evans Head-Woodburn Preschool lost everything in the floods.
Many of them were rescued from their roofs with just moments to spare and, seven months on, continue to call caravans and temporary accommodation home.
“This is the world that they know right now and it’s made such a big impact on them,” Gillespie said.
“It was hard, really terrifying for little kids, their parents had to leave them on the roof while they went down to a neighbour’s house. That’s pretty harrowing when you’re only three and four.
“There’s some really horrible, sad stories.”
The Northern Rivers Preschool Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation representing state-funded preschools on the Far North Coast, saw 11 of its preschools go under in the disaster.
Play therapy key as young children learn to process flood trauma
Play therapy has become a key tool in helping young children in the Northern Rivers communicate their emotions following the February and March events.
“Helping them to manage their emotions, helping them to understand it’s okay to be anxious or sad or upset, and then how to work through that,” Gillespie said.
“We’re helping those kids to process through the play that they do.”
Parents are reporting behavioural and personality changes in their Northern Rivers children.
Leanne Clifford says the disaster has changed her once-fearless daughter.
“From a little girl that was so independent, sleeping in her own room wanting to do everything herself, [Evelyn] now has a very hard time leaving Mummy to go to preschool and wants to sleep in our bed every night,” Clifford said.
“My little independent third child… we’ve now nicknamed her our ‘velcro’ child – she is stuck to me non-stop.”
Clifford says although their home did not flood, her family housed multiple flood victims and her children were living with people who’d lost everything.
“We tried to alleviate [the children] seeing as much trauma as possible, especially the traumatised adults that were coming into our home… But they do see so much and [Evelyn] quite literally has been stuck to my leg the entire time.”
Leanne Clifford says the disaster has changed her once-fearless daughter, who now has separation anxiety.
Toys taken to ‘safety’ as children reenact flood disaster in play
Clifford says her daughter’s priority when playing now includes ensuring her toys are out of harm’s way.
“When Evelyn plays with her dolls and her teddies, she does ensure that they are playing on the high bunk bed not the low bunk bed,” Clifford said.
“[My] friend says her child, when it rains, paces from the front door to the back door to the front door… she said that’s what she was doing when the floods came up to her home… The children are copying what we did. It’s what they saw us do.”
The Northern Rivers Preschool Alliance, a not-for-profit organisation representing state-funded preschools on the Far North Coast, saw 11 of its preschools go under in the disaster.
When little Evelyn plays with her toys and Barbies, she makes sure they are on the top bunk, safe from floodwaters.
President Sonya McPherson says buildings suffered varying levels of damage.
“Some were a complete loss, some were a partial loss but preschools as non-profits… we don’t have lots of finances to replace stuff. The funding we make goes straight back into the community.”
McPherson estimates 1000 children between preschool, early learning and long daycare were subsequently displaced by the February and March disaster.
“They’re three to five years old, developing humans soaking up everything… it will shape them forever,” she said.
East Lismore Preschool is temporarily operating out of demountables at Wyrallah Road Primary School.
Sonya McPherson, the Director of East Lismore Community Preschool and President of Northern Rivers Preschool Alliance, has seen children building “walls” around their pretend towns.
The flooding has seen a 15-20 per cent drop in enrolments, however, even with a fall in numbers, their temporary space is proving a squeeze.
“We have got 101 [children] and that is really difficult. It is really full and it is really crowded in a demountable,” McPherson said.
“It’s been incredibly tough because we’ve got about a third of the space in comparison to [our old preschool].”
McPherson says the preschoolers often compare their old East Lismore site to their temporary site at Wyrallah Road.
“They speak often about at my old preschool we had X and use to do X.”
“You’re talking about nearly 40 years of handcrafted wooden resources lost, teaching resources, an entire library,” she said.
East Lismore Preschool is temporarily operating out of demountables at Wyrallah Road Primary School.
Northern Rivers preschools calling for more assistance
The state government has offered up to $9 million to preschools in flood-affected LGAs with grants of up to $30,000.
Preschools are grateful for the funding but admit it hasn’t gone far in terms of rebuilding and are now calling for more assistance.
“[It’s] been really tough comparatively to the primary schools and the secondary schools,” McPherson said.
“There’s still huge gaps of what we’re missing in comparison to what we had before.”
But it’s not just resources that have gone.
Entire streets were swallowed by floodwater during the disaster in February and March. (9News)
“We’ve lost some of our staff, they’ve needed to leave because they don’t want to live in a flooded area anymore.”
McPherson says she is regrettably having to turn down local parents who are attempting to return to work post-flood.
“I get somewhere between 3-5 calls a day requesting preschool for children that I can’t fill… parents are desperate to return to work full-time or part-time and are unable to do so because there is nowhere for their children to go,” she said.
It’s unclear when East Lismore Preschool will be able to return to its original site.
“We’ve only just had a building report, it’s about 142 pages long worth of damage. We’re estimating the middle of next year,” McPherson said.
Childcare centres say they are turning away parents from enrolling while they rebuild.
Fears of what a third La Nina will do to flood-fatigued towns
The threat of the third La Nina is keeping the Northern Rivers in a state of constant anxiety.
“Every time it rains there’s lots of children you have to support,” McPherson said.
“One quarter of our team lost their homes, so they’re attempting to be strong and [reassure] kids that they’re safe and okay while they’re also trying to internally reassure themselves.
“They’re just as triggered by the rain as the children are.
“The [town] hasn’t come back… the sadness has just saturated the town… the sparkle has not come back.
“The sense of community is still really disconnected and people are sad.”
McPherson says it is a race against time to raise East Lismore Community Preschool and fears what another major flood will do to it.
“[Water] came in 152cm into a building it had never touched before. If it happens again before we can raise the building, I have no idea what we are going to do.”
Josephine Shannon is a Reporter for NBN News, covering the Central Coast region in New South Wales and based in Gosford. Josephine joined the Northern Rivers bureau in September 2021, covering the Northern Rivers 2022 flood disaster before moving to the Central Coast in March 2023. Get in touch by emailing josephine.shannon@nine.com.au.
