Yesterday, as the family paused for a cuppa, the neighbour with the pumps, Gary Tomlinson, who runs a pool cleaning service, said the council had to take another look at the impact building settling ponds and fences for the water plant near lower Church Street in 2012 had on their properties.

“In the 26 years I’ve been here we’ve never had water running through our place but on Saturday morning we saw a little bit coming through,“ he said.

“Three hours later, we had two feet running. It  was higher than the top of your gumboots.

“There was a sharp rise and more and more force all the time.”

With more than 10 years experience in irrigation there couldn’t have been a better neighbour for the Faheys to call on.

What followed was a desperate 36-hour battle to keep the water out of their home.

Mr Tomlinson said they got stuck into sandbagging the Faheys’ themselves because it was getting late and they thought the SES would make them evacuate and the house would be lost.

“Tim and Cherie spent 36 hours straight running the pumps, we got a couple of hours sleep, “ he said.

Water seeped through the sandbagging and their first line of defence, at the front gate was foiled by wood chips laid along the garden bed.

They bagged a second row, still without calling on the SES, who he said had not patrolled the area because it had been classified as low risk, and with three pumps going managed to keep the water at bay.

“It got a bit muddy inside because we had to trudge inside when we started to lift stuff but we saved it.”

Like many people in Forbes Mr Tomlinson is puzzled by the unpredictable flow of this flood. When things dry out he will be hoping council can explain.

Meanwhile Local Land Services is predicting the effects of the flood will remain for farmers long after waters recede, with disease and parasites posing a threat.