Goulburn River Caravan Park manager Matt Borrack says he is feeling thankful as he examines cabins inundated by Monday’s floodwaters.
“We’re lucky,I reckon,” the Seymour local says as he sips from a water bottle and mops sweat from his brow. Despite record-breaking rain in nearby catchments a little more than 24 hours ago,there is no longer a cloud in the sky and the temperature is nudging 30 degrees.
“The last floods probably cost us $1.2 million plus,” he says. “We were shut for five months,so we lost income. We spent probably $800,000 plus rebuilding. And no insurance.”
Borrack is referring to October 2022,when the entire caravan park was flooded and he had to kayak from cabin to cabin to turn off gas bottles. Fast-forward 15 months,and only three cabins and one caravan have been impacted by above-floor flooding.
The damage,although minor,won’t come cheap:Borrack expects the final bill to be around the $20,000 mark. However,he and others working at the caravan park won’t know for sure until the water pooling at the back third of the property begins to seep back down stormwater pipes and back to the river bank.
The hope is to welcome back some tourists as soon as next week.
“We’ve got no general insurance at the moment. No[caravan] parks now can get general insurance. The insurance industry has wiped their hands of parks even though they didn’t pay anyone out[in 2022]. You go,why?”
One of the cabins that was inundated on Monday had fresh flooring installed days ago. Another cabin,which also went underwater in October 2022,was still awaiting renovation.
“We hadn’t even fully reopened from the last one.[But] it’s going to be more of a general clean-up this time.”