The Bloomfield community is pulling together to honour former Degarra resident Ray Dark, the only person lost to the catastrophic flood event that followed Tropical Cyclone Jasper in late 2023. Photo: Facebook.
More than a year after Degarra resident Ray Dark was lost in the region’s worst flood disaster, community members are still feeling the hole he has left behind in their tight-knit group.
Mr Dark was the only person to lose his life during the Tropical Cyclone Jasper flood event, when residents desperately clung onto roofs and trees through the night.
In a heartwarming gesture to honour his life, volunteers from the Bloomfield River District Residents Association (BRDRA) came together to organise a memorial rock in Degarra, near the land on which his house used to sit.
“It’s hard to put into words what happened that night,” BRDRA secretary Robyn Guedes said.
“We had people on roofs and hanging onto trees and saying goodbye to each other.
“The flood normally only came up to the top floor of Ray’s house and he thought he was okay; he was up on the top floor ready to sit the flood out, but this flood went metres above his house and we lost him and never found him.”
Ms Guedes said Mr Dark had been beloved local who was a close friend to many.
“I first met Ray when I came into the [Bloomfield] River in 1978 after sailing from Darwin, and Ray was also on a boat as one of the boaties,” she recalled.
“He became close friends with a lot of people in Bloomfield, and he was very friendly, easy to get along with, and just an all-around nice guy.”
She said the volunteers were currently in the process of finalising plans to tile and cement the area around the memorial rock, as well as installing a permanent plaque.
“It’s actually been really great to see everyone pulling together to make this happen,” Ms Guedes said.
“People have just been putting their hands up, saying ‘we need this, we need that, we need to go to Cooktown to get it’; it’s an orchestration and these things don’t come about easily, but people are happily volunteering, getting supplies and attending the meetings, and everyone’s had a say on what words we want on the plaque.
“Ray’s son and daughter actually came back with some lovely words to put on the end of the plaque, so it’s been really nice having their contribution as well, because they’ve put their own little plaque on his tiles, which is all that was left (of Mr Dark’s house).
“Lots of people have been contributing, the jobs are shared, and everybody has a feeling that it is a community effort; I think it’ll shape up to be a very special place.”
