Key points:
Flood-affected schools from the NSW North Coast are competing at the Sydney Royal Easter Show
Maclean High School has prepared 10 head of cattle for their first appearance at the prestigious event
Lismore’s Richmond River High is entering its best egg-laying and meat chickens
hours to get all of the livestock off which included 20 cattle, 30 sheep, 100 chickens and 10 pigs,” agriculture teacher Christopher Kirkland said.
It was three months before the animals could return to the farm, which faced an equipment damage bill of more than $100,000.
Mr Kirkland said a much larger bill was expected for buildings and structures.
“I’d say that they’re going to spend about $1 million down here to actually bring it back up to scratch and flood-proof us into the future,” he said.
The impact and damage of the floods also extended to the students’ own family properties with crops, pastures and farmland inundated by water.
“It was right when our soybeans were just getting to their peak time, they were looking really good, and the flood washed over them and practically killed the majority of them,” Grace said.
Fellow student Georgie Lee said the experience was “very tough”.
“Where I live we weren’t able to have any cattle on the flats for a very long time, we ran out of hay most of the time,” she said.
Show brings excitement to school
Lismore’s Richmond River High is still reeling from the February 2022 floods.
The damage to the school was so extensive it had to relocate to another campus.
While cattle, sheep and goats are back on the school’s original farm, students have been caring for chickens at the pop-up site.
“Last year when the floods hit, we had to have them sent [to the show] with somebody else but to actually be able to have the chickens here on site, to have the kids do all the work, it’s going to be fantastic,” agriculture teacher Sally Ford said.
The students were involved in selecting the best meat chickens and the best egg-laying chickens to send to Sydney Royal to compete.
It is the first time the school has competed at an agricultural show in three years, and the students have been excited.
“What we’ve been doing today to get them [the chickens] ready is weighing them, looking for broken tail feathers,” Harrison Flanagan said.
“We’re pretty ecstatic to go down, to get some podiums and if we’re lucky enough to get first place.
“The last couple of years we haven’t had a chance to do that, we’ve been at home or cleaning up after the floods.”
Ms Ford said the animals had helped in the healing process for the students.
“All the chickens and goats, picking them up, being able to actually interact with them, and then learn properly how to manage them and handle them, feed them, it’s just an amazing opportunity,” she said.
“It’s like pets for therapy.”
