With no emergency exit, flooding has become a serious issue for residents and campers in the Glen Davis area, with four floods trapping residents in the past five months.

"It is absolutely essential, we don't just hope council do something, they have to," Glen Davis resident and secretary of the Glen Davis Association Julie Gibson said.

Currently Glen Davis has one way in and out of the township, by a low level causeway concrete bridge that is lower than the height of the road. It gets covered with water after any significant rainfall in the valley.

The issue of emergency access isn't just a worry during the floods but also the fires. If the main road is impacted, residents would be trapped with no way out.

The town's residents, who are primarily of retirement age, always try to be prepared for an emergency.

"We'd be crazy to live here and not be prepared!" Ms Gibson said.

If anyone needs medical care and the bridge is under water, the only way out is via helicopter or SES boat, but that takes time to organise since the boat comes from Bathurst.

Residents said they have no knowledge of Lithgow City Council assisting anyone in the town during the times they are trapped, and no one has any knowledge of whether the council is working on something now that the emergency has ended.

Documents and letters from the 1990s establish that Lots 12, 20, 21 and 22 DP249567 are burdened by the Right of Carriageway which is vested in Lithgow Council (used to be vested in Blaxland Shire Council).

READ MORE: Popular Blue Mountains walking tracks reopens to visitors

Minutes from a council meeting in June 1998 state "Council confirm that it has no objection to the use of the Right of Carriageway by the citizens of Glen Davis and other members of the public only in times of flood, emergency or for any reason that the Glen Davis Road is not traversable."

Residents and visitors used to use a Right of Carriageway through several properties to bypass the bridge when flooding occurs.

"During the long dry time, one of the properties this road traverses has changed hands and the current owners will not allow people to use this road, they lock the gate," Ms Gibson said in a letter to Lithgow City Council.

"The wet weather we are having is becoming a serious problem, not only for residents but also for visitors who have come to stay in the camp grounds at both Glen Davis and Coorongooba, and in rental properties.

"Children are unable to return home, people are missing medical appointments..."

During the 1970's, a subdivision of the gulley's occurred because it was conditional on having a flood evacuation road that Lithgow City Council would look after.

"The Council used to look after us, and keep an eye on us and the population numbers were lower then but the problem has become a modern one with more and more people getting caught in the camping ground or National Park and the road has gotten messed up," she said.

"Local people didn't realise that it was a legal thing and I only realised because a neighbour had those papers stored in his house from his previous owner who wanted to make sure they knew about it, meanwhile council kind of forgot about it too."

Up until five years ago, all the owners went along with word of mouth and didn't mind if people had to go through their property to use the emergency exit, but lately some residents aren't so fond of the idea and keep their gates locked.

"That got me angry enough to go and research, and realised it is an absolute right that we can get out during an emergency, it's part of the setup of the way this place exists, we should have an emergency exit," she said.

Ms Gibson said that Council have been making moves "very slowly" and there is "always something else more important".

"We watched the river and were certain we would be able to get through on the Friday, which is day six, so we were sharing what resources and food we had," she said.

Lithgow Council were contacted for comment but have failed to respond.

Federal member for Calare Andrew Gee said that he was out in Capertee Valley during the floods and saw first hand how difficult and stressful it was for residents in Glen Davis who were cut off.

"We were only about 40 meters apart - but it may have well been 40 miles as there was no way of getting across the river to Glen Davis," Mr Gee said.

"It certainly highlighted to me the need to get the easement/fire trail issue sorted, because history has shown us that this will happen again."

According to Mr Gee, he has had a number of conversations with Council on the issue, who have told him they've been getting in touch with local landholders to get them onboard for the access route which is on the easement which is currently closed.

"The next step is to get the work that is needed to improve the access done," Mr Gee said.

"If help is required by Council for this work, they will need to reach out to the State and Federal Governments with a plan. I'm certainly keen to assist them to get it sorted if they need a hand with it.

"In the longer term a bridge into Glen Davis will be needed, and there are State and Federal Government grants that can assist with that. It will be a question of Council applying for funding."

Mr Gee said disaster funding for the Lithgow and Mid-Western Local Government Areas is something that he has been pushing hard for and has been activated following the severe wet weather events.

"This support is available for affected residents, small businesses, not-for--profit organisations, sporting clubs, primary producers, and local councils," he said.

Ms Gibson took to Facebook to try and find out what was happening around town and to see if anyone had been notified of the issue that was happening in the valley.

"There were no broken legs or anything but it wasn't until my Facebook post when people suddenly started to pay attention, and the SES from Portland got brought in, they brought a boat across to give us essentials," she said.

"I didn't actually know it was happening because no-one came to ask me what food I needed, they normally assume 'Julie's always going to be okay' so I didn't get any help."

After residents contacted Lithgow Police, Portland SES got a job from the police to do a welfare check on the residents.

"I then contacted my RFS contact in Glen Davis and asked them to do a welfare check on all the residents and see if they needed any supplies," Portland Commander Kim Phillips said.

Ms Phillips said they got a call back with a list of supplies the community needed boated across while their duty officer was on the phone to Bathurst SES requesting their boat be on standby to assist later in the day.

"I know we live in a great town so I touched base with John Kearns from St Vincent de Paul and he donated some vouchers which we could use to buy essential groceries like bread, milk, eggs, toilet paper and some meat from the butchers, we also got cat and dog food, a bale of hay from the Portland Produce and over the counter medication from the chemist," Deputy/Team leader Kenneth McDonagh said.

The SES team did two trips across the river crossing, taking their time making sure that all the members stayed safe.

"All went to plan and the teams were in and out of the valley within the hour," Mr McDonagh said.

Ms Gibson said that should this flooding have resulted in a real emergency they would have to call triple zero and get a helicopter to fly in.

"But it's not just about the bigger emergencies of no food or an accident, it's the little things. During the flood at the end of last year I went to watch a friend perform in Bathurst and I knew the river had been starting to come up because it can be raining up in Kandos or Capertee and not actually in Glen Davis and that can cause problems," she said.

"So I rang a friend and he said I better leave right away, so I missed the performance and raced home, and it was just on time, I shouldn't have but I did drive across even though it was too deep for my vehicle but I didn't get stuck, but I was within a whisker of getting stuck.

"I did it because I knew if I didn't I wasn't going to be able to sleep in my bed at night.

"It's the emotional thing of being stuck behind that bridge just because you left half an hour later from somewhere than you should have and there is no recourse, whereas 10 years earlier you could have said, 'oh well I'll get through on the four wheel drive track in my two wheel drive vehicle' but that's no longer operational because people are locking the gates."

Ms Gibson said to give council its due, Christmas happened, then the Lithgow floods and now these floods and she understands how busy they have been.

"They have to negotiate with those owners and then figure out how much work has to be done and then they have to schedule it into the council roadworks," she explained.

"As far as I know nothing has happened yet, they were supposed to have an appointment on March 4 but as far as I know that hasn't taken place."

Ms Gibson told the story of a couple who got caught on the Glen Davis camp ground when the floods hit.

"An innocent couple who were under the age of 25 hadn't done a lot of camping before but they were loving it so much they had been there for three days when the flood shut them in and it was pouring with rain and they were beginners so they weren't very dry," she said.

"I went to check on them and make sure they were okay, and the next day I decided to open the hall and let them in, I was new to having a key to the hall myself so I was stepping over a few marks but it was the right choice when a huge tree fell down in the campsite which could have done serious damage to them.

"I don't know whether I should have and I haven't told others but I also gave them the WiFi password because they couldn't communicate with anybody that they were safe.

"One afternoon I invited them around to play ping pong but after a day they couldn't do that because the roads were impassable, so it was lucky we were able to share resources with them because they didn't have enough food stocked up for all that time."

In a Facebook post Ms Gibson asked Lithgow Council if they were seen as being in an emergency situation when campers couldn't leave, or when someone couldn't get home to feed their animals, or when someone had run out of their blood pressure pills.

All things that were happening down in the village.

"Who decides when it is an emergency and who gets to use the road and what mechanism is there to inform stranded people since there's practically no mobile phone access in the cut off parts of Glen Davis?" she said.

"This was on day four and the person who had to feed their animals paid for a helicopter and we all had no idea what to do about the blood pressure pills and had to ask around in case someone had the same ones."

Ideas that Ms Gibson brought to Council included new communication methods such as a sign at the turnoff from Capertee to indicate if this and the other bridge over the Capertee River are impassable, inclusion in the Lithgow Council's warnings on roads being impassable, notification to the owner of the land over which this carriageway runs when it is to be used and notification to residents when the road is accessible.

So far though, her message is falling on deaf ears and other residents are in agreeance.

Resident Kylie Marie said she has been in contact with Lithgow Council about the emergency right of carriageway since last November with no resolution and little response.

Ms Marie has had to follow up with Council multiple times trying to get answers.

"We have been flooded in three times since then," she said.

"We've had stranded campers on this side running out of supplies, residents running out of medication and thankfully the SES did a delivery after people in Glen Davis tried to call out to Lithgow Council with no response or help."

Ms Marie said she was worried for the community with most residents being in retirement and elderly.

"When an emergency can easily be prevented and resources such as SES could be needed in another emergency and there could be easy prevention strategies in place already, that's what makes me mad at the situation," she said.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: