00:00Returning to her ravaged home is still a painful experience for Megan Riley.
00:07The more you look at it, the more it just upsets you.
00:10When floodwaters reached Thargaminda in April, the town was inundated.
00:15Some of the debris coming down.
00:17Only a handful of homes were left untouched.
00:20You could see the water line and I just knew.
00:23I opened up the door and everything was everywhere.
00:26Four months on, more than 30 families are still living in caravans.
00:31Ms Riley plans to demolish her house and truck in a mobile home as she can't afford to rebuild.
00:38Getting a builder out here and materials to do so is just exorbitant because of the distance.
00:46Local tradesman Jeff Pike has never been busier.
00:50He says the cost of building a home in the outback is almost double the cost of building in the capital.
00:55And even if you can get a tradie, there's nowhere for them to stay.
01:00Limited by beds, so we've brought our own caravans in to accommodate the extra people that we've got.
01:08Mr Pike has organised a portable campsite to be trucked to town to increase the capacity for workers.
01:14It's been a perfect storm for many Thargaminda residents.
01:18Those with insurance have had their flood cover more than double in the past few years, even before the flood.
01:23And those without, left to cover the cost of rebuilding themselves.
01:27Thargaminda's slow restoration could take years.
01:32The painstaking process only made easier by the close-knit bush community.
01:37The help and the community getting together has just been fantastic.
01:42You know, it's just, it's pretty overwhelming.
01:46For Megan Riley, it makes picking up the pieces worth it.
01:51You wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
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