Gunnedah business owners forced to close after flooding causes damage to shopfronts and stock

Store manager of Brown's Tyre Service Simon Hatch, said the business was facing an income loss of close to $50,000 after they were forced to shut for two days.

"It all catches up with us," he said.

"It's a lot to try and recoup back, especially when it happens so often."

Mr Hatch who was forced to watch his stock float around the Conadilly Street workshop on CCTV after he was flooded in at Somerton, said the affect on business had been significant.

"We've had the water come up into the yard but it hasn't gotten this far up," he said.

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"It causes a big drama of trying to clean all the mud and water out of the stock."

The flooding also meant staff were out of work and wages while the store was shut.

"We've got close to 20 staff here, so that's 20 people without wages for a few days."

On Tuesday staff were busy hosing down the yard with pressure washers before a bobcat was used to scrap away the mud.

Across the road, Irene Kleeman from Gunnedah Workshop Entrerprises, said the business was lucky to remain unscathed.

"We did sandbagging as a precaution after water lapped up the front of the shop in November last year," she said.

"They were saying we could have gotten peaks of 9.1 or 9.2 metres and if that had come into fruition we definitely would have flooded."

Sandbags lined the shopfronts of businesses along Bloomfield Street with Chaffeys Mower Clinic and PRO FIT24 forced to shut up shop for cleaning.

Chamber of Commerce president Ben Hennessy said chamber executives were meeting on Tuesday afternoon to work out how to best support businesses.

"There's ones who have only just recovered from COVID and now they've got the flooding to deal with," he said.

"It's certainly challenging times."

Focusing on short term help, such as food hampers, or long term assistance like securing grant funding is something Mr Hennessy said the chamber was weighing up.

"The government is always on the front foot with things and trying to put grants together, but if you're a flooded business owner you don't have the time to apply for those grants," he said.

"That's something the chamber might be able to look at facilitating."

Despite the ongoing flooding Mr Hennessy said Gunnedah was still a "great place to do business".

"The economic outlook is fantastic," he said,

After dealing with the initial pain of flooding, Mr Hennessy said the agriculture-dependent region would benefit from the rain.

"Having those catchments full means that our irrigators, who rely on river allocation, will be safe and sorted for the next three years regardless of what the weather does," he said.

"That underpins the future security of the economy for the region."

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