The lane was opened late yesterday afternoon after it had been  closed to traffic for nearly a week, prompting locals to refer to it the suburb as Gillieston Island.

The suburb had  been supplied by  boats until yesterday when the final boats, loaded with passengers, food and cartons of beer, embarked for its shores.

A dedicated team of volunteers with rolled-up jeans pulled donated tinnies onto the asphalt of Cessnock Road on each side of the submerged Testers Hollow bridge.

Then about 9am yesterday the boat crews announced the water was too shallow to continue their service. But it was only a few hours later that authorities opened one lane of the road to traffic.

Floodwater cut the suburb off from the rest of the city a week ago. 

“I’ve done this for a week,” one resident loading groceries into a boat told the Mercury. 

“But I was driving through Kurri and it was totally surreal to be outside the tiny area I’ve been confined to,” she said. 

Last week, stay-at-home-mum Jess Heuston left her Kurri Kurri home to try to reach her friends on the island. 

She was met with lines of cars abandoned on the mainland, the road disappearing beneath the water and residents ferrying each other in and out.

She has spent nine hours of every day since organising passengers and boats for those in need of transport.

"The first few days were panic stations; no power, no phones, no way to leave."

"But once the supplies came across and they realised the boats could get them out, it really helped people calm down.

"By saturday we had six boats in the water and a jet-ski. We're like a family here now."

Boat wrangler and Gillieston Heights resident Phil Latham said the sense of community on what residents called The Island had changed his outlook on his fellow man.

"The upside to this horrible event is that it's brought Gillieston closer together, the sense of community spirit on those shores is incredible," he said.

"I've met my neighbours properly for the first time. I've had beers with people I wouldn't have otherwise met," he said.

The propellers of the boats were damaged as they struck road surfaces and guard-rails along the bridge.

"The community started a Go Fund Me account to say thank you to Crestview Cruises and the other residents who have sacrificed their boat, time and fuel for everyone," Mrs Heuston said.

"It's rather calm out here like this though. Today we had bream swimming over the Testers Hollow bridge."

The community also accepted donations for the family of Gillieston Heights great-grandmother Anne Jarmain, who was swept from the road to her death during the floods.