How long would you wait for a builder?
Builders across the country became very busy, very quickly when the federal government's HomeBuilder program was announced in the middle of the pandemic in 2020.
For rural communities, like Goondiwindi in southern Queensland, the influx of building jobs coincided with rain that broke the most severe drought on record and brought with it good season after good season.
Suddenly, farmers had money to spend.
But with residential construction busier than ever, the motivation for builders to travel out of town for farm jobs disappeared.
Toobeah builder Mckanah Gibson said he focused on rural contracts from his base south of Goondiwindi.
"I've probably got 12 months' worth of work in front of me, without getting more quotes or anything like that," Mr Gibson said.
"I don't think you'd find any builders around this Goondiwindi area that don't have 12 months' worth of work in front of them.
"I am trying to get more [tradespeople] but there's no-one available. Everyone is just so busy."
Goondiwindi builder Scott Jackson said he had not seen the town's construction industry so busy during his 25 years in the trade.
"It's tough because we try to keep everyone happy because they've looked after us so well over the years," he said.
Unprecedented price hikes
Mr Jackson said he was trying to juggle price hikes and delays to material supply while accommodating his year-long waiting list.
He said the price of steel was "out of control".
"Since the start of last year it has been rising every month, you could go anywhere up to a 15, 20 per cent rise in one hit," he said.
Just down the road, Mr Jackson's local suppliers are also struggling to meet the needs of their clients.
Mackenzies Home Timber and Hardware trade manager Sam Biesiek said he had never seen anything like it.
He said he had recently made a difficult call to Mr Jackson.
"The steel roofing [Mr Jackson] had quoted his client we could no longer get; it's been so delayed," Mr Biesiek said.
"The only material we could get for him is 25 per cent more expensive."
He said the builder would have to wear the cost.
"He nearly fell out of his chair when we told him," Mr Biesiek said.
"But he signed contracts — he's got to do it."
Woes from end to end
Builders aren't the only ones wearing delay costs.
Hayes Spraying financial controller Jenny Hayes said her Goondiwindi-based manufacturing business had been trying to build a new machinery shed for the past 18 months.
"They [the construction company] thought it would be completed by now," Ms Hayes said.
"The full impact of the delay could be up to easily $200,000, which includes the rent [we are] paying already, the payments paid on the shed and the part payments paid for the machines to go inside it."
She said it also had slowed production.
"But we're not upset with anyone because we know what it's like because we are in production ourselves," she said.
About 70km west of Goondiwindi, Rob and Tina Rains have, like many other farmers in the area, been trying to renovate their workers' accommodation in an attempt to attract farm labour.
After years of living on the land, the couple expected to have to wait a bit longer for a builder than those living in metropolitan areas.
But when local builder Mckanah Gibson was finally able to get started on the renovations, he was delayed a further six months by flooding and supply chain disruptions.
"We've learned down here to be very patient. It's just a long way from everything, so we expect things to take a long time," Ms Rains said.
"But we've got an employee who's had to move to another house so that the builder can finish this job, so I hope it won't be too much longer."
As the length of time that goes into the workers' cottage renovation drags on, so too does the cost of the build as material prices get passed on to the builders' clients.
"I mean, the builders can't do anything else," Ms Rains said.
"If their costs go up, ours are definitely going to go up and so it means that our projects have to become smaller."
She said there was only so much money that could be spent on the cottages and costs could not keep growing.
"We just don't have the money," she said.
