00:00This was the first time Melinda Byrne saw her Thargaminda home.
00:06Sandbags that barricaded the doorway pulled away.
00:12And the destruction left in the wake of the water revealed.
00:16Puddles of mud pooled on her lounge room floor.
00:19And we've got photos.
00:23The scale of loss enormous.
00:26It had water almost a metre up through it for a week.
00:30It's just hard to explain and you think, yep, that's the worst it can be.
00:34But then you have a phone call with an insurance company saying that's as bad as it can get.
00:39Until recently, she'd always been covered for floods with her home insurance.
00:44That changed when she got a renewal notice.
00:47Her home insurance was increased to more than $30,000 a year.
00:52I actually rang them at the time and I said, I think you've made a typo on here.
00:56I said, you're actually charging me more a month than what my annual premium was.
01:01Around the town of Thargaminda, it's the same story.
01:05This hotel has suffered an estimated nearly $1 million worth of damage and lost business.
01:11Flood insurance would have cost them an extra $25,000 per year on top of their annual premium.
01:18Like most in town, they couldn't afford that.
01:22Even some council assets aren't flood insured.
01:25Well, it's too expensive. Full stop.
01:27Driving around Thargaminda, damage is evident on every corner, every street.
01:33These people here in this corner house lost everything.
01:35Only 12 homes were untouched by flood waters in this disaster.
01:40Many weren't insured for floods.
01:42The mayor calling for action, saying it's not fair.
01:45Yeah, it's rude.
01:46You know, they take us for all mugs because we live in the bush or what it is.
01:51But, you know, it's not right.
01:54You know, you're penalised for where you live virtually and that shouldn't be.
01:58The Insurance Council of Australia says worsening extreme weather is putting upward pressure on premiums across the country, calling for the creation of a flood defence fund to build disaster resilient infrastructure.
02:12The town's leaders fear if people can't afford to live there, they won't.
02:17If we lose them, well, we're not going to have the bush and we're not going to have what Australia stands for.
02:24That's, you know, we're sort of the last frontier here at the moment.
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