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When much of northern NSW is put on alert for major flooding, members of the Clarence River Sailing Club in Grafton carry out the familiar task of clearing out their headquarters and relocating their vessels to higher ground.

By Wednesday last week, the club’s corrugated iron-clad base was empty and left to face the rising levels of the Clarence River as it has been each time the waterway swells.

By Monday morning, a day after a major flood warning was issued for Grafton, the bottom storey of the clubhouse had been swallowed by the fast-flowing brown water of the Clarence, the upper level just inches clear of the still rising river.

“This has probably ended our sailing season for the year,” the club’s commodore, Luke Denham, says.

The clubhouse being inundated is a regular occurrence the club’s members have come to expect.

“Every time the river comes up, the sailing club goes under pretty quick.”

Denham is hoping the water subsides quicker than during the 2022 floods that devastated the Northern Rivers region north of Grafton.

Then, the entire club was submerged, save for the apex of its weathered roof, with a foot of mud and river sediment left behind when the water subsided.

“Hopefully, there’s not too much damage, but we just have to wait until the water recedes,” Denham says.

“It’s just going to be a mess for quite some time.”