Krishna Girl

Krishna Devotee Steph Bond navigates the rubble pile, the remains of Tweed Valley Way to deliver food to those who haven’t eaten in days.

During March, 2022, the Northern Rivers region was savaged by rainfall totals never seen before.  A rain bomb. Biblical proportion rainfall. Lismore, to our South, saw flood heights 2 meters higher than ever previously recorded. The scale of the destruction really beyond comprehension. 

Between the Storm and the recovery time stood still. The old highway into Murwillumbah, the main arterial road and for many the only way into the township was torn apart. Were it not for the immense torrent of water coursing through the small cane drain known locally as “Blacks’ Drain”, many say it’s likely the town would have suffered far worse flooding. 

Those on the southern side of Blacks’ Drain were cut off from civilization. No power, no running water, no internet, very little mobile phone communication. Many fleeing inundation with only a handful of belongings. No food or shelter, making a temporary camp under the Margaret Olley Art Gallery. 

I was standing next to Bruce and Suzi Weston’s now fenceless and coffee coloured swimming pool at the Gallery Motel, a woman in a magnolia coloured dress was picking her way over a thin strip of rubble that had remained of the washed out road. Her name is Steph Bond, from the Krishna Farm at Eungella. I’m told they cooked for three hundred people that day, delivering food to whomever was hungry. 

This image shows the first run of dishes coming across the bridge, a powerful moment, sustenance going to many who’d not eaten in many days.