Gympie couple Des and Daveena Lawlor are living in a shed and RV with their six children, one month on from Gympie's worst flood in more than a century.
Hundreds of residents were displaced in the floods and some remain homeless, with the recovery expected to drag on for months.
Mr Lawlor said he installed a bath beside his shed for his family to use after two weeks of showering at various truck stops.
"I'm searching for a plumber now to try to get the bathroom fitted into the shed," he said.
"It could be six months or more."
The Lawlors' home was gutted in the south-east Queensland flooding disaster.
"The water came about 1.2 metres into the house, which it had never done before," Mr Lawlor said.
"The whole house was just emptied and thrown into big piles.
Mr Lawlor said borrowing their friends' RV and living in a shed was the family's only option, as the floods worsened the region's already-tight housing market.
"The closest accommodation they could find us was a caravan park 60 kilometres away and we've got five children at school," he said.
"At the time, we only had a five-seater car that was lent to us by some friends."
The flow-on effect
About 800 properties were impacted by the floods and 240 were declared uninhabitable, according to the Gympie Regional Council.
Resident Chey Matthews is living in a tent behind a shop close to Gympie's CBD, after his home suffered extensive damage in the floods.
"It's quite hard going," Mr Matthews said.
"There's nothing [accommodation] out there, there are families with kids and everything else and they can't find anything.
"We've got a little bit of financial assistance, but they don't let you know what you are eligible for really."
Charity Gympie Angels formed during the floods to help the increasing number of people in need.
Volunteer Dallace Menchin said the natural disaster was having a compounding impact on the town, which was already struggling with housing.
"We always will have homelessness, but homelessness has been caused [by] … not only the floods, but because of COVID," Ms Menchin said.
"COVID has pushed rents up to three times the price."
A broad issue
Gympie Mayor Glen Hartwig said the council was working hard to support the community as it recovered, but it would take time.
"If there are people that don't have a place to reside, don't do it on your own, either contact council or contact one of the state agencies or housing department so you can get some assistance," Mr Hartwig said.
"We're having very good discussions with the relevant state departments about some short-term accommodation solutions for the region."
Suggestions of building a levee or relocating the city were put forward by the community in the flood's aftermath, but Mr Hartwig said finding the right way forward was complicated.
"It's a conversation that happens after every flood and I think the reality is that the cost of moving the CBD and dislocating half the CBD to another area creates its own problems," he said.
"That's not something that this local government or the ratepayer really can afford at this point in time."
But after losing almost all of his possessions, Mr Lawlor said locals were desperate for something to change.
"I don't understand why they haven't done something about diverting the floodwaters," he said.
"I don't know all the ins and outs of it, but I don't understand how they cannot look at having some sort of a way of reducing it, because it costs millions every time."
