Leigh Wilson, who led off the flood inquiry hearing with a passionate plea for measures to be put in place to avoid anything like what happened 10 and a half months ago, said three years was the expectation of his group for a semi-complete recovery.
“Initially we were thinking it would be two years. Now we know it will be three years, or even longer,” he said.
Mr Wilson, who has been involved in almost every aspect of the recovery, said the assessment of the damage had happened quickly, but that there was a level of incompetency in what had followed — from service providers, insurers and other people providing services to victims — that had people just taking whatever they could get.
“There are frustrations at every corner, particularly in the way people are rebuilding,” he said.
“Services from insurers vary dramatically, and we are being set up for a greater shift to opportunistic landlords because people are putting their homes on the market,” he said.
Mr Wilson said apart from a brief period of support from the Australian Defence Force, a week after the event, there was a distinct lack of outside assistance.
“Things started to fall through the cracks because most of the recovery work was being done by people directly impacted by the flood,” he said.
“It was different in 2011. We had 100 people in the town within a matter of days to help then.
“This time there just weren’t the boots on the ground.”
Mr Wilson explained he had a plan for his, and his wife’s, home and business.
“If the forecast of water height was correct we would have been fine,” he said.
“Based on that, we made a decision far too late and stayed in our home.
“It is very hard to be judgmental on a lot of people not evacuating because of what we experienced in the 2011 event.”
Mr Wilson said the bar had been reset by the 2022 event, as the Campaspe River stretched to 2.6km wide and engulfed the town.
“Because we can’t manage the rainfall, in Rochester at least it becomes an uncontrollable situation,” he said.
He described the follow-up work of state government officials as “shattering’’.
“We are relying on you (the inquiry) to bring that change. Who loses their job for not putting things in place?” he said.
“Most people thought they would never see anything like 2011.”
Mr Wilson said proposed mitigation measures following 2011, including levee banks, were dismissed because the two proposals — though moving the water away from the town — would have moved the problem on to farm land.
“Seventy-two per cent of Rochester people didn’t want to flood out their neighbours to save themselves. That is what levee banks would have done,” he said.
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