Flood-hit Bellambi neighbourhood face heartache and cleaning with grim resolve

Cars have been written off, carpet has been torn out and furniture has been rendered unusable since Saturday's heavy rain.

Anthony Wallis has lived in his home along Pioneer Road for more than 10 years.

He was awake early and noticed water coming in around the air-conditioner.

"I went to put some tea towels around it and then I looked at the floor and went: 'hang on, that's a dirty, great big puddle to be coming from a leak'," Mr Wallis said.

While it was the first time water inundated his house, Mr Wallis considers himself to be "pretty lucky". Though not so much outside where his gardening endeavours have been destroyed.

"I'm an amateur rose breeder and I just lost about, I don't know, how many years of work.

"I haven't had the gut to go out there and deal with it yet."

His daughter's car, which he'd been using while his was at the mechanics, is also another victim. He suspects it will be written off due to water damage.

"I'm lucky given the fact that I haven't lost my whole house but there's, I'm sure, people that are up and down the east coast that have lost everything."

Another resident along Pioneer Road is Brett Marriage. He woke up on Saturday to water around his ankles.

"I didn't hear anything until a neighbour came around and knocked on the door saying: 'are you OK?'," Mr Marriage said.

"It was probably around 300mm up the wall."

Mr Marriage's carpet and doors have been damaged beyond repair and the new kitchen was recently installed in his rental will "probably have to be replaced".

"My car is probably going to get written off because it looks like a Christmas tree when you turn it on."

The most devastating loss for Mr Marriage, though, is more personal.

"My dad's stuff ... my dad passed away last year and there was some sentimental stuff that was under my bed," he said.

"I was spewing about that, there's nothing we can do about it, but that's what I was spewing about mainly."

A silver lining of the situation has been the efforts of the local community banding together to help each other out.

Luke Murray's home was hit hard by the floods.

"I had to basically down the back fence at 6am in the morning because I could hear the water noises as I got up for work," Mr Murray, who has owned the property for five year and moved in not long ago, said.

"I've seen water coming through the front door as I've got up ... there was like a waterfall down my driveway coming into my house."

Mr Murray says he "instantly" realised the water needed somewhere to escape to and broke his backyard fence to let the water flow out.

To help dry his home, Mr Murray was given industrial fans by friends of friends and says he's also received support from his jujitsu gym.

"Everyone's helping each other," he said.

The residents of Pioneer Road have been left to clean up their lives after the floods - and there's more than the odd suggestion the council has not done enough.

Lisa Vagg says the water in her home was as high as ankle-deep, leaving furniture damp and doors swollen.

"Swollen doors that halfway through the night you trip over," Ms Vagg said.

Residents, including Ms Vagg, have been left frustrated by the council's response to the clean-up.

"The council are here taking all the rubbish: 'We're only here to do this, we're only here to do that, we're not here to clean the creek'.

"It's all for show even the day after they come out and there was a street sweeper sweeping the gutters and I thought 'God are you joking?'"

The sentiment was shared by Mr Murray.

"There was no emergency services or anything like that here offering anything," he said.

"The council came once the flood receded and put up a sign saying flood water, but it was already gone.

"That's all I've seen them do."