00:00 While Timber Creek's homes stayed mostly dry, the record floodwaters have taken a toll.
00:07 We've literally lost about 90% of our fencing and therefore our livestock is obviously everywhere and all unaccounted for at this stage.
00:15 Rainy Holcomb's stock are wandering on the Victoria Highway, a vital transport link that was until recently closed in both directions.
00:23 We need funding to help us rebuild the fences, to help assist with labour, to pay for helicopter hours, to assist with the mustering.
00:33 So that's all something that we need immediately.
00:36 With the town isolated, Rainy and her husband chartered a helicopter to buy groceries for her neighbours, a step she says she shouldn't have had to take.
00:44 I'm pretty disgusted with the lack of support that the government has offered in regards to safe food supplies in general.
00:50 To the east at the Victoria River Roadhouse, floodwaters have uprooted buildings and created dangerous sinkholes.
00:57 I've got gravel on its way from Timber Creek now, put in there in case someone falls in it, you know, it's a bloody nightmare isn't it?
01:04 Owner Milton Jones says inadequate drainage under the Victoria Highway is partly to blame for the damage.
01:11 So the water couldn't get away and it's run down that way.
01:14 As the recovery begins, attention is now turning to the adequacy of the government's response.
01:19 One-off hardship payments have been made available to flooded communities along the Victoria River,
01:24 but they've largely been restricted to people who were evacuated, prompting questions about fairness for the people who were left behind.
01:32 I was calling, calling and calling, but nobody was listening.
01:37 And the food that came was only just for half the community, the rest of the half had to miss out.
01:43 In the Indigenous community of Buller, half an hour west of Timber Creek, these local teachers say a supply drop of food and power cards was so inadequate,
01:52 the neighbouring cattle station stepped in with a donation of fresh beef.
01:56 But how were they going to keep the meat without the power?
02:00 The NT Emergencies Minister dismissed these concerns.
02:03 No one was left starving and as needed we'd fly food out there.
02:06 But if they had listened to people who were feeding information up, I'm sure half of the problems wouldn't have occurred.
02:12 A community pleading for better listening.
02:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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