2022 flood still a haunting memory

Caption: Bill Walsh

By DAVID BRASCH

BILL Walsh says it is only ‘the mongrel in me’ that kept him going when he found himself neck deep in Lismore floodwaters back in 2022.

While Bill was fighting to stay alive, underneath his Lismore home, floodwaters were washing away many thousands of dollars of stored leather and work tools that made him a household name on the Northern Rivers.

Greyhound racing knows Bill so very, very well.

Now 70, he spent 25 years at Lismore, Casino and Tweed as starter and then club steward.

But Bill is also best known for his leather work, providing trainers with their collars and leads, head checks and even their own belts. He’s been doing just that for decades.

But, in 2022 all that washed away in the devastating flood that staggered the entire world and almost killed Bill Walsh.

Only now is he starting to get back on his feet and look to do a bit of leather work for all those regular clients.

He lost $30,000 worth of leather.

“I live in South Lismore,” said Bill. “The house was lifted to one metre above the level of the 1974 floods that swept through the town.

“The 2017 floods got to 1.5 metres under the house.”

When the flooding rains of 2022 came, Bill readied himself by moving all that precious store of leather to the verandah of his home.

“But the predictions of rainfall were so far out. The water kept coming and kept coming. It got into the house.

“I was finally rescued by a couple of guys in a tinnie. I was in my hallway and the water was up to my neck. They took me out the front window.

“I lost everything.”

Bill’s furniture, and of course the store of leather, was under water for four days.

“I had been accumulating the leather over the years so that when price rises came, I did not have to worry about it,” he said. “Everything was ruined, including a sewing machine I used to stitch the leather.

“I lost most of my hand tools and they are not something you acquire overnight.”

Locals and his own family rallied around.

“I went to stay with Lisa Vanderstok (the Casino track photographer) for eight weeks,” he said.

“My son-in-law came down from the Gold Coast with a team of Maori mates of his. They had generators and Gerni high pressure hoses. They cleaned out the house of everything and then hosed it all out.

“It then took days for it to dry.”

Bill has been back in his home for the past 12 months or so and has gradually been putting together some leather and tools again to get back to work. Trainers have been contacting him again with requests for collars and leads.

But the nightmare of that flood sticks with him.

“No one could buy anything because there was nothing to buy,” he said. “I lived off service station pies for seven weeks. I had two sets of clothes and that was it.

“But, everyone was in the same boat. And, the state and federal governments ignored us. I had to have a bit of grit and determination to get back going again, the mongrel in me came out.”

Just as he was getting back on his feet, life dealt him another blow.

He got cancer in his neck and had a major operation in the Gold Coast Hospital, followed by six weeks of radiation.

“It sits you on your arse,” he lamented.

These days he’s been getting back to the track, visiting Casino during day-time racing and catching up with long-time friends and clients.

“I like the people in the game,” he said. “Well, most of them. Bob Lane (the retired race caller) rings me every week for a chat and we catch up.

“A few of the dog boys have been asking me to get started again with the collars and leads.

“I enjoy doing that work. I got started because my brother John had a few dogs and I made some for him and it went on from there.”

He always wanted to be a jockey and worked with horses when he was very young, but his mum refused to let him become an apprentice.

“Yes, I am lucky to be alive,” he admits. “It was pretty hairy for a while.”

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