Shire of Dardanup left to pick up the pieces after minor flood rips through Gnomesville

Thousands of the South West’s smallest residents have been displaced due to minor flooding which hit Gnomesville last week. About 100mm of rain hit the region on Tuesday night, according to the Shire of Dardanup, causing the popular tourist attraction about 25km south-east of Bunbury to be flooded. The rainfall caused the creek, which runs through the village, to swell and catch a number of gnomes in its current. Dardanup deputy shire president Ellen Lilly said the clean-up had already begun. “Our ceramic community of Dardanup is very unhappy,” she said. “The extreme weather has left us with lots of fractured gnomes, and it will take some time to restore Gnomesville, but we will.” Aside from damage to gnomes, there was also concern over infrastructure at the site including the walkways and bridge. Cr Lilly said people should be careful when visiting the site. “Although Gnomesville remains open, we ask visitors to be careful as there is still a lot of cleaning up to do,” she said. “Broken gnomes and slippery pathways caused by mud make it important to tread carefully.” This is not the first time the gnome metropolis has battled flooding, with heavy rainfall submerging the site in July 2018 and August 2013. The 2018 incident sparked residents of Bunbury retirement village Ocean Star Village to fashion a rescue boat dubbed the Ocean Star Gnomeads 2018. The craft was made from a plastic baby bath and equipped with oars, lights and fishing lines.