Troy Lickiss was on Ballina St bridge, Lismore, on NSW's North Coast, dropping off people he had just rescued from flood water, when he overheard a heartbreaking phone conversation.
A man was saying goodbye to his father who was trapped in his car in floodwater and didn't think he was going to make it.
"A man on the bridge was having his last words with his dad. He said he'd had a good life. We went there straight away," Mr Lickiss said.
After finding the car near Hollingsworth Bridge, they smashed the car window and got the man out before taking him to safety.
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It's just one of the incredible rescues Mr Hollingsworth conducted with neighbour Sean Vietch that night - they saved about 120 people.
Mr Lickiss had spent the day lifting equipment and supplies at his South Lismore business, Lickiss Fabrications, when he saw a neighbour trying to climb onto the roof of her house. Then smoke started billowing out. Then the flames started.
He thought, "if I don't do something, bad things are going to happen".
Luckily he had his boat on site, and managed to push it over fences against the current to rescue her.
Then there's the family of seven they saved off a balcony, and the two people who had their noses to the ceiling with floodwater at their chins.
And Mr Vietch's own family.
"As we were going down the street in the boat, people were just pleading and screaming for help," Mr Lickiss said.
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Mr Lickiss said the town will need a lot of help to recover - physical, emotional, and financial help, and now.
"This is just my story, there are hundreds more.
"Every house and business west of Dibbs St is gone. Where does Lismore find 20,000 beds, 20,000 fridges, 20,000 microwaves?"
His wife Sherilee said: "This town won't come back unless the government helps'.
