"You take a bit from the river, you've got to give back, right?" said Paul 'Nipper' Aquilina, a professional fisherman who spent so much time helping people on his boat during the flood, that he caught the flu.
Mr Aquilina, who lives in Leets Vale - near Wisemans Ferry - is well-known on the Hawkesbury River for helping out his local community in times of need.
The last few times the river flooded, Mr Aquilina used his fishing boat to ferry supplies to stranded locals, feed stranded animals and help people salvage items from their flooded homes.
During the most recent flood in July, Mr Aquilina was even better-prepared, having purchased 20 life jackets, a life raft and an extra engine, "so I didn't have to worry and no-one's stressed".
Mr Aquilina said he had never seen anything like the most recent flood, which reached 13.93 metres at Windsor.
He is a commercial fisherman by trade, chasing live eels for the domestic and export market this time of year (though the export market has slowed due to the pandemic) and trawling for prawns most other times.
He was humble when asked what he did to help the locals during the recent flood, but said "I saved a couple of boats and pushed a couple of [shipping] containers".
You can't really do much in a flood, you just sit there watching the water come through the house so you may as well put a boat in, bring people medicine, feed people's cats. I make heaps of friends every flood.
- Paul 'Nipper' Aquilina
"They're [the boats] bobbing like a cork with the nose down, so you've got to cut them off the moor and tie them up to a tree."
He is affected by flood himself: water was in his house during the last flood but he's since moved to higher ground. Still, he was likely to lose some equipment to the waters this time around - like packaging for the eels and prawns.
"But I'm OK - I'll lose it and make it again. It's happened four times now," he said.
When asked why he spent the flood ferrying people and supplies around, he said "I was the only one with a boat".
"I'm the flood boat guy. People need me to run here and there; even people I don't know are saying, 'you're Nipper aren't you, can you do something for me?' and I'm like 'sure'. No-one else seems to have a boat in. I must be reliable.
"You can't really do much in a flood, you just sit there watching the water come through the house so you may as well put a boat in, bring people medicine, feed people's cats. I make heaps of friends every flood."
Mr Aquilina's neighbour, Haydn Graham - who owns BlackBear BBQ in Vineyard - said Mr Aquilina was "one of the only guys who sticks around. He runs his barge and punt and goes through people's houses and rescues things for them".
"He rescued all our neighbour's stuff and took all our boats up the hill last time," Mr Graham said.
Sarah Falson
Daily Liberal journalist. I love telling people's stories. Get in touch at sarah.falson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Daily Liberal journalist. I love telling people's stories. Get in touch at sarah.falson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
