Due to the River Murray floods, the Hunter Highway access road to Mannum ferry remains closed. So, we are running a bus for our 22 staff members who are forced to drive an additional 100 km daily to get to work.
Murraylands and Riverland Regional Development Australia (RDA) agency chair Jodie Hawkes shared that we are dealing with cleaning up and other issues such as depleted bank balances, lost customers, fixing damage to buildings, etc. However, she assured that we have a recovery plan and are working on it.
The agency was part of the zone emergency team during the floods, and its business development director Julie Bates will now lead a new Murray River Tourism Recovery Working Group. The RDA is also armed with 22 recommendations for business recovery, replacing the ‘D’ word in its recently produced Regional Drought Resilience Plan with the word disruption. Eighteen of those critical recommendations apply to flood as well as drought.
