Imagine, just try to imagine, the force of the water that tossed aside this steel footbridge, pictured below, and reduced its concrete surrounds to rubble.
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That's the force of the water Ray and Cherie Bennett - who were in their home - fought on November 14, the day a devastating "inland tsunami" hit their community.
Like so many others in Eugowra that day they woke in the early hours of the morning, acutely aware of the storm that had raged all night across the already sodden region.
Ray checked the water levels in the early hours of the morning and thought they'd peaked about half way up to their verandah.
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He was making a start on breakfast when Cherie went out for a look and called that the water was rising onto the verandah.
He went out for a look too, and the next minute the couple were racing toward the rear of their property, fleeing before what's been described as a wall of water.
"I suppose it would be 45 or 50 metres to our back door - we ran pretty well flat out through the house - and it was up around our knees," Ray said.
By the time the Bennetts got half way up the back yard the water was waist high, the Colorbond fence from next door breaking up and floating around them.
Ray got Cherie over the barbed wire back fence and she clung to it as he threw himself over.
"By the time I got over and got her it was up around my neck," he said. "There were bits of wood, tin, drums all floating down the lane."
In the terrifying minutes that followed Cherie was dragged under the water three times, and each time Ray managed to pull her back to the surface.
"The third time she went under I got her up and I said, 'well if it happens again we'll both go' because I was more or less worn out," he remembers now.
Ray focussed on a pepper tree - just a small one but it saved their lives that day.
"I hung onto the barbed wire fence and hung onto (Cherie), and pulled our way up along the barbed wire fence," he said.
By this stage the water was over Ray's head, and he had to keep pushing off the ground to push Cherie up to where she could get into the fork of this tree.
"She sat up there with her legs dangling over the side and I stayed in the water, the ground was moving around a bit and the tree wasn't a real big one," he said, again confronting the possibility they might not survive.
"I thought if I left the tree, the tree was going to go. I told her if the tree goes, we'll both go."
The tree held on and so did they, battered and cut by the debris in the water for more than six hours.
"It was breaking aluminium sheds up like they were tinsel, just snapping them, it was horrible," Cherie said.
Ray said the water "just kept coming and coming and getting higher and there was no relief."
"I just kept bouncing around. I had hold of the tree and the limb and all these spiders and bugs were dropping onto my head, I had to duck under water and shake them off, and then come back up."
They waved when they heard a helicopter going by, but were concealed by the tree.
In the end, Ray got Cherie's white shirt on a stick and ventured out into the open - into the rushing water of the laneway - to wave it around.
It's only a little town but, gee, you miss it when you leave. Eugowra's our home and that's where we're going to stay.
- Ray Bennett
There was sweet relief when the helicopter pilot, as he was lifting someone else from the property behind them, spotted Ray and signalled him with a thumbs up.
Ray wouldn't go until he knew Cherie was safe: he insisted the rescuer get her from the tree first and waited another 10 minutes for the chopper to return.
The Bennetts were taken to Orange where they spent four days in hospital before being transferred to first the university and then motel accommodation.
Monday, December 12, marks four weeks since that horrendous day and they have over the weekend moved home to a caravan on their property.
Their children and their families have been hard at work - shoulder to shoulder with total strangers - to clear the debris from their home and get a fence up so they can come home with their dog, who was miraculously found safe in the days that followed the flooding.
The Bennetts are beyond grateful to the many who have extended their hands to help: from the rescuers on the day to the hospital and hotel staff, to the stranger who asked their sons if they needed a hand with the overwhelming clean up.
Cherie is unspeakably proud of her husband and his life-saving actions that day.
"Without him, I wouldn't be here," she said with certainty.
While initially unsure she could return to the scene Cherie is now one of those who wants to be back at their home of 22 years, to be part of the rebuilding of Eugowra with their community.
"It'll be so good to see Eugowra come back from all this and the only way that's going to happen is if everybody goes back there," Cherie said.
"It's going to be a while before Eugowra gets back to normal but we will get back to normal."
"It's only a little town but, gee, you miss it when you leave," Ray said.
"Eugowra's our home and that's where we're going to stay."
How can you help?
There are so many harrowing stories from Eugowra on November 14, so many homes and businesses that need to rebuild.
So far, nearly half a million dollars has been raised through online platform GIVIT, with these funds being distributed to Eugowra residents who register the items they need to get back home again.
You can donate by going online to https://fundraise.givit.org.au/fundraisers/EPPA/eugowra-flood-appeal
Eugowra residents can register for support at the showground.
But with the community doing so much, Federal Member for Calare Andrew Gee is calling on governments to come forward and activate more funding for the community.
