One year after a natural disaster devastated the small Victorian town, hundreds of people are still living in caravans.
lenys Mulcahy’s home looks pristine from the outside, surrounded by a well-kept garden and neatly trimmed lawn.
Over the past year, he has spent weeks at a time in hospital in Bendigo where he was treated for depression. There were moments when Glenys feared the worst – that he may not recover, and they would never live together in their home again. Shortly before the Campaspe burst its banks last year, authorities sent out a blanket message to people in the area urging them to leave.“Any person located in Rochester or the surrounding area should EVACUATE NOW,” the message read. It warned up to 450 homes would be flooded, but that alarming warning was a gross underestimate.
Rochester Community House manager Amanda Logie sees people every day who still need help with the basics – blankets or food and fuel vouchers. As a“Even a few weeks ago we had people presenting for the first time who thought they could do it by themselves but got to breaking point,” Logie says. “Who would have thought that 12 months down the track we’d still have so many people displaced?”
Henderson worries about how many homes are listed for sale and wishes she was selling them in less stressful circumstances. But, curiously, the disaster has not extinguished demand for local property. While some Rochester residents have settled their insurance claims, many others are still working through that process. The Insurance Council of Australia confirmed a total of 1579 claims in the Rochester area. About 60 per cent of those claims have been completed. One was declined.An Insurance Council spokeswoman says claim closure times were being slowed by the high volume of claims nationally after a year of extreme weather in 2022.
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