Once the waters recede it’s the smell that hits you: an unmistakable, miserable earthy stench that is impossible to forget once it has invaded your nostrils.
Brisbane resident Rachael Roberts has been through floods twice, first in 2011 and now in 2022. “The smell – oh my god – it’s putrid,” she says. “It’s this dank smell like clothes that have gotten wet and haven’t dried properly and another layer of something like sewage – it’s stuck on everything and you can’t escape it.”
