Susanna Freymark
Mick Sullivan is one of 40 people living at the Kyogle Showground. He’s been there for about a year.
On September 21, he has to leave with all the other campers.
Read about the reasons why here.
He has no car and his home is a small, blue caravan with an annexe. Every thing Mick owns is stuffed in to that annexe.
Despite the prospect of having nowhere to go, Mick is still smiling.
He likes living at the showground.
“I’ve never fully enjoyed the company as much as I do around here,” he said.
“When I’ve lived out bush, I only saw wallabies.”
Mick came to the region from Windsor in 1992.
He gets his fortnightly Centrelink payment, shops mainly for tinned food and pays about $300 a fortnight to camp at the showground.
His daughter lives at Geneva but where she rents isn’t big enough for a caravan, Mick said.
When he gets turfed out of the showground, he plans to pitch a tent at the railway station in Kyogle.
“I’ll have to leave my lovely (vegetable) garden and the people around me,” Mick said.
“We’ve become like family here. We’ve got each other’s back.”
Sarah Hogg pulls up a chair on the grass outside Mick’s home.
Like Mick she’s been here for a year.
“Once everyone gets out the gates, they’re going to scatter,” she said about September 21.
Sarah lives in a 12 metre (40 foot) caravan with her special needs son, a dog and a cat. Her father is in the caravan next door.
“I’m born and bred in Kyogle,” Sarah said.
“If we move out of the showground, we have to leave here.”
Her 13 year old son goes to school in Kyogle.
Difficult circumstances made her feel “pushed out of Kyogle” many years ago.
She worked in Queensland as a disability support worker. When covid hit, she chose not to get vaccinated and lost her job. So she headed back over the border to NSW.
She feels luckier than many at the showground because she has the luxury of a caravan — especially when it rains and the place gets muddy.
Sarah said she has a short term and long term solution for campers.
Short term she’d like to see campers be allowed to stay for a period of time, say three months, to give them time to make other arrangements.
Her long term solution is for the campers to move permanently into the council caravan park diagonally opposite the showground.
Kyogle Council said the caravan park is under repairs.
State Government legislation does not allow permanent stays in parks that flood. Kyogle Gardens Caravan Park is one of those parks.
The council said it has not received a DA for camping at the showground.
Both the council and Crown Lands have said they have no issue with primitive camping at the showground.
A Crown Lands spokesperson said the Kyogle Showground and Public Recreation Land Manager has care and control of the site.
Crown Lands said it would continue to take a compassionate approach and work collaboratively with the local council and the showground on a long term solution.
Crown Lands has no role in the day-to-day management of Kyogle Showgrounds.
The Showground and Recreation Reserve Trust told campers on August 21, they would have to leave.
No written notice was given to campers.
The showground trust has said it cannot speak to the media so we’ve been unable to ask why a DA hasn’t been put in or how the money from campers compares with money from events cancelled because of campers.
Crown Lands told IndyNR.com that the Land Manager could speak publicly about what was going on. So far, the Land Manager has chosen not to.
Kyogle Together said some families at the showground have children at Kyogle schools. Some families were impacted by flood, fire and covid, the organisation said.
“There are people with mobility issues and at least one person is affected by a stroke and at least three others are in various stages of cancer.”
IndyNR.com visited the showground today, Wednesday, September 4. There was a community services event on at the showground to support campers. There was a free barbecue funded by the CWA and service support from Kyogle Family Support Services, Kyogle Together – Emergency Relief and Recovery Support Services, Social Futures, Service NSW, Northern NSW District Health Disaster Relief, NR Community Disaster Response and Recovery Service, Kyogle Food Pantry and Christian Life Church Kyogle.
IndyNR.com has asked State MP Janelle Saffin and Minister for Housing and Homelessness Rose Jackson to comment on the situation at the Kyogle Showground.
Helplines
Mental health support at NSW Mental Health Line: 1800 011 511
For people who are not displaced by the floods but are experiencing homelessness can get assistance by contacting Link2home on 1800 152 152 or at
Link2home is the statewide homelessness information and referral telephone service. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year.
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