JOY grows in content hearts, proclaims a sign hanging in the corner of Dorothy and Ron Leishman’s carport.
It was the contentment of a peaceful retirement spent at home that the Creswick residents were after when they downgraded to a brand new house in August 2010.
Yet, the Leishmans’ peace did not last long.
“We moved in one week before we got flooded out,” Ms Leishman says. “We lived next door for 43 years and never got a drop of water in it.”
The couple, 67 and 70, were inundated again last year in the January floods. Mr Leishman says the floods have swept away their hope of a peaceful old age.
“That was the plan,” Mr Leishman says. “It didn’t last very long.”
Now, onto their third wall unit among other things, the grandparents of five are planning to build a brick wall down the back from where the water came into the house.
Meanwhile, their insurance payments have also doubled to $800. But having lived their whole lives in the town and with scant investments, they have nowhere else to go.
The catastrophe has left scars that are hard to forget.
“They all laugh at me because every time it rains, I am looking out to see to see how much rain there is,” Ms Leishman says. “Or I am ringing someone ... to find out if it is going to be heavy rain.”
Click to view Ballarat region floods from the sky
According to Hepburn Shire flood recovery officer Jenny Browne, on January 13, 2011, Creswick and Clunes received between 25mm to 50mm. And 24 hours later, they received 50mm to 100mm rain.
“In less than 48 hours the towns received rainfall equivalent to three summer months,” Ms Browne says.
During the September floods in 2010, Creswick and Clunes received between 150mm and 200mm of rain. The Feburary event in 2011 brought the same amount of rain.
The floods also affected the town’s caravan park as well businesses located along the Midland Highway between Victoria Street and Cushing Avenue.
Ms Browne said the estimated flood damage account will be an approximate $22 million by completion. Over the year, the town has received both federal and state funding.
Hepburn Shire Flood Recovery program has already spent $8.3 million of its projected $16 million budget to date.
A spokeswoman for Minister for Emergency Services Peter Ryan put the overall figure for Hepburn Shire at an “excess of $3.5 million”.
Slowly, the town is limping back into shape.
The Creswick Football Netball Club was back in business in April 2011 after the shire began $107,000 reconstruction of the flood-damaged Hammon Park in February.
The oval was damaged by the flood events that hit the district in September 2010 and again in January and February this year.
CFNC president Peter Considine said the football club, community and council had contributed greatly to the oval’s restoration.
“The footy club can be the heart of the community and if the club is vibrant and happening, it is something for the community to get behind and feel like they are a part of,” Mr Considine said.
“It has been a long way getting back here.”
On Wednesday, Acting Premier Peter Ryan was in Creswick to allocate $33,000 to the Creswick Scout Hall as part of the state government flood recovery funding.
First Creswick Scouts’ parents committee secretary Amanda Pascoe said the money would help rebuild the group.
However, a year on from the January floods, some groups, like the Creswick Bowling Club, are still without a home.
The club’s former president Barry Yates said they were hoping to be in their new premises at the Doug Lindsay Recreation Reserve in time for the start of the next season.
But until then, the club’s 90 or so members, from teenagers to elderly octogenarians, will continue to travel to Ballarat to play.
Mr Yates said though it was tough, he was sure the 1850 establishment would survive.
“It has been a hard grind,” Mr Yates said. “Everybody has found it hard to move on.”
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