00:01It was just downstream of here at Wagga Beach on Saturday afternoon that emergency services
00:07were called to quite a distressing scene responding to a concern for welfare when they found a
00:12mother had just given birth to twins in a homeless camp set up here on the banks of the Murrumbidgee
00:19River. One of the babies had tragically died. The mother and the surviving baby had been taken to
00:27Wagga Base Hospital. The camp that's set up here is about a dozen camps along the banks of the river
00:34and on the other side is a flood levee that protects the CBD from flood. One of the residents
00:41that I spoke to said that it's been quite degrading to have so much attention on what they call their
00:46home. They say that sometimes people walk along the levee and sort of stop to have a look. They
00:52point and stare sometimes even laugh. He told me that he urges people to have an open mind about
00:58their situation and try and understand that you know some most of the people that are here really
01:03have nowhere to go and it's really a last resort for them. In terms of what the community is doing
01:10now they have said that you know they've accepted that this happened on their watch and they don't
01:15want to just leave it to government to come up with a solution. About 40 members of the community and
01:21stakeholders including department officials met in Wagga last night to come up with some solutions.
01:27It's early days it was a lot of ideas thrown around such as figuring out ways to build possibly
01:34build dongers or the like on on vacant land come up with creative solutions to improve sanitation in the
01:41area but for now it's about trying to consolidate those ideas and also the local mayor will be meeting
01:48with the premier while he's in sydney tomorrow and friday
01:52and friday.
01:53so
01:53so
01:54For more information, visit www.fema.org
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