Flood sets a new record

The July flood set a new record with the river running about 12.5m above normal, beating the previous high of 11.8m, adds daughter Amy. Even so, the farm suffered no stock losses.

"You wouldn't be able to have a farm without the terraces," says Joan.

The 87ha farm, which Joan's late husband Bruce bought about 50 years ago, forms a long strip down the southern side of the river, opposite the town of Westport, and both above and below the main highway bridge into the town.

The farm, which Amy ran from 2011 to the 2017 season and is now leased to another couple, featured in a widely-published photo taken at the height of the flood. It showed a large modern Claas tractor sitting in floodwater near the dairy shed with water almost to the top of its wheels.

On the day Dairy News visited, the water had receded but thick silt coated the shed and yards. Some machinery was damaged and it was unclear whether the milking season could begin on time.

Joan Hamilton describes the flood as "unbelievable," especially at a point where water pushed through a stock underpass under the main road to Cape Foulwind, filling the concrete channel all the way to the top and scouring a deep guly out of the race.

"It was gushing out and it was just an incredible current coming through.

"And when it had gone down there were all these stones everywhere that had come through with it from the river."

She's grateful for the help of local Rural Support Trust, particularly with clearing and patching several kilometres of fencing.

"It doesn't look too bad now but there was a hell of a lot of debris."

Conservation-minded, Joan Hamilton ran a couple of plant nurseries for many years, providing many thousands of plants for the community and for mining remediation. A section of the Kawatiri Coastal Trail, a 55km walking and cycling track being developed eventually to connect Westport with Charleston, runs along the farm's river frontage. Some of that has been lost to the flood and it may be out of action for some time.