Mural artists have returned to Eugowra to begin restoring the artworks that tell so much of the community's story and draw so many visitors to town.
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There were no plans to host the annual gathering of signwriters this year, committee chair Tim Cheney said, after all they didn't even have beds to offer their visitors, let alone the ladders and tarps they need.
But the artists were more than willing to show their support for their friends as they rebuild their homes and community from the destruction of the 2022 floods.
"There's a special bond here that all of us feel so immensely," Sharon Fensom said.
"We know how precious and loved these murals are to the town and what they've meant to the town, this is the best way we know how to help.
"All the stories we tell are the foundation of Eugowra, where you come from and what got you to where you are."
(The murals) represent the foundations of this place. Its backbone. All the stories we tell are the foundation of Eugowra, where you come from and what got you to where you are.
- Shaz Fensom, mural artist
Their focus was on three of the earliest murals they completed - three that greet visitors approaching Eugowra on the Forbes road:
- Parallel Motors,
- the Gardiner Gang and
- the Welcome to Eugowra murals.
Parallel Motors is right on the bank of the Mandagery Creek and the walls were blown out by the force of the water, the mural buckled and damaged as can be graphically seen in the photograph of this page.
Over two massive days, with a little helper in her granddaughter, Ms Fensom clamped and hammered, packed and sanded.
The mural hasn't been permanently reinstated yet - although significant repairs to the building have been undertaken.
It has been placed on a temporary frame for the artists to work on.
A new information panel that will tell the story of the building, which dates back to the early 1900s.
In an almost unbelievable twist, a severe storm gusted in on Sunday evening with hail and high winds, tearing one of the central panels from its frame and bringing half the mural down.
It has been relocated to an empty shop for safe keeping.
Mr Cheney said it was "incredible, quite humbling," to have the artists return.
On their hearts and minds was the late Di Smith, who loved the annual murals weekend and who would have celebrated her birthday on Saturday, May 6.
The artists also refreshed the Gardiner Gang and Welcome to Eugowra murals.
The plan is for the murals to be placed on new frames in new locations, and created a new sign for the reopened Eugowra Pharmacy.
