‘Totally Wiped Out’: Millions of Dollars Worth of Art Lost in NSW Floods

Note: This article discusses First Nations people who have passed.

Betty Russ says her house in Lismore never floods. It's on higher ground than the rest of the town, situated on a raised plot of land where flood waters never enter her home.

But in the early hours of Monday morning, things changed.

Lying flat on her back on a kayak, trying desperately to escape through the only open passage of her house, Russ was forced to face the realities that most of the Lismore community was now familiar with: A torrential amount of rain had engulfed the area, flooding the CBD to a record 14.4 metres and destroying countless buildings and homes.

And amongst it all, Russ knew one thing: The gallery where she was co-director – Elevator ARI – was almost certainly flooded as well.

The two-story building, with an upper level that rose some 13 feet off the ground, was home to an estimated half a million dollars worth of sculpture, paintings, collections, tools and furniture. She knew it could all be gone.

“By 5 a.m. I’d say the water was already past the first floor,” she told VICE.

Russ, alongside artists and volunteers, had predicted imminent flooding. They cleared the bottom floor of the gallery the weekend before, but they weren’t expecting the levels to rise beyond that. 

“The conservators were the first people in the building, if that gives you a sense of how time critical it was,” she said. “With metals and the amount of chemicals and bacteria, the mortar and metals start to corrode really quickly.”

Though they rushed to the building, there was no telling what could be saved. “Everything was just totally wiped out,” she said.

Elevator ARI was home to multiple artworks, and some artists had works reaching back 20 years. One in particular had a rare synth collection to the value of $100,000. Artists that have risen as staples in the Australian arts scene, including Quandamooka woman, Megan Cope, lost highly valued pieces that stood as cultural tentpoles for First Nations people. 

“We had exhibitions on display by Sandra Taylor, who's a local woman from Coraki, and she's 80 years old, and it was probably going to be her last exhibition. That was just inundated with water.”

It was all gone.

“And then there’s stuff you can’t really quantify financially,” said Russ. “Between equipment downstairs, table saws, lighting and projectors and computers, cash and sowing machines and overlockers.”

Other galleries, such as the Lismore Regional Gallery, where Ashleigh Ralph works as director, reported similar stories. With works from prominent artists like still-life painter Margaret Olley, photographer Max Dupain, and Bundjalung artist Digby Moran - all with a worth of $4.5 million - it was likely that it was all destroyed.

“We had over 70 years’ worth of donations to the gallery. And we had a collection touring called ‘The War Rugs From Afghanistan’, spanning 40 years of the war in Afghanistan, that were really valuable,” Ralph said. “All the artworks are going out for assessment in Brisbane and Sydney, with conservators. So we know what we can save and what we can't.”

Flood waters reached record breaking heights in the area on the 28th of February, and since then have receded to a point where the clean-up process could begin.

“We've had over 400 volunteers who have assisted us throughout the community,” said Ralph, “A few army people scattered about, but not really doing much.”

On Thursday last week, the NSW government announced a $437.7 million funding package for flood victims, co-funded by the Commonwealth government. Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel were also deployed in the area to help with the cleanup process. 

Both the funding and assistance from ADF personnel has been criticised by flood victims. 

According to Russ, they’ve heard of about $70,000 being released into the community. As of the 9th of March, they hadn’t received any monetary help. 

“Auslan Creative, which has a really high concentration of deaf people, and the Lismore Regional Gallery have all made applications for the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund over COVID,” Russ said, “We all received our rejection letters the night before last, stating that our applications were inadequate, which was a bit of a fucking blow.”

“All I can hope is that what's happened is that the Minister has actually pulled the requested funding from each of the adequate applications, and he's going to pull it and redistribute it with equity for the flooding.”

“That's an extremely positivist view. But yeah, it was pretty disarming.”

Though Russ says the Minister for Arts, Ben Franklin, was doing what he could, many artists are sole traders and earn below the threshold to receive any kind of funding. She’s not holding out hope.

When it comes to rebuilding, it’ll be months - or even years - before work can begin.

“For some people this is the second time they've lost everything in five years since the 2017 floods. And you are trying to rebuild in a CBD that's lost a lot of its infrastructure. I mean, who knows what's going to happen there.”

For Russ, the gallery didn’t just stand as a centre for art but also as a community hub. It was not just for the art sector but also the LGBTQIA+ community as well.

“It's gonna take a huge emotional toll, not just the physical loss of their work, but it's the loss of the space for practice. It was therapeutic.”

“To not have that space for communion, and expansion for conversation… it will be a big hit.”

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