Darren Davey was given three days in November to protect his holiday shack by the Murray River in SA.
The second floor had been inundated on Friday.
Roads to Scott's Creek, home to a handful of permanent residents and many more holiday shacks, were closed in mid-October as floodwaters from southeast Australia bloated the Murray River and flooded communities alongside it.
When the access road opened up in mid-November, owners had a weekend to clear what they could, and move the rest to higher ground.
"When I first got there, my aim was to retrieve the caravan but because my little shack had become an island and literally I was thigh-deep in water, I wasn't going to risk losing my vehicle (as well)," Mr Davey told AAP.
The 53-year-old and his family prepared for another foot of water in the bottom room by lifting their fridge onto besser bricks, put their couch on saw horses, and removed the wooden doors and furniture.
The Davey family returned a month later when roads opened again and things were much worse than expected.
"When we got there there was no fridge, no lounges, they floated out the doors," Mr Davey said.
"There's probably at least half a dozen fridges that we counted this morning nestling-in amongst the trees."
Returning again on Friday from his home in Adelaide, Mr Davey's top floor had been inundated with water, but he said he was fortunate compared to many others.
"There'd be a lot of families on the Riverland in those communities that had this stuff go through their family home, that would be terrible."
The flood's peak is yet to reach Scott's Creek, but this week it passed the town of Renmark about 140km upstream.
Mr Davey had planned in line with the best available information from the authorities, but said things had changed quickly in each case, often once roads had already closed.
"There's a lot more water coming down than they had anticipated or predicted, but I've got no problem with that," he said.
"It's been not since '56 that they've had such an event, so to be able to predict water flow and inundation at this level would be pretty hard."
So far at least 1100 properties along the Murray have been impacted by floodwaters and authorities expect that number to rise to 4000.
It's believed about 250 businesses and 4000 hectares of agricultural production will be impacted, according to the SA State Emergency Service.
On Thursday, SA premier Peter Malinauskas said floodwater was moving faster than expected along the Murray River and authorities hoped to see inflows at the Victorian border down by mid-January.
A ban remains in place for all recreational activities on the Murray.
Authorities are developing a timeline and criteria to ease restrictions as conditions improve over the coming weeks.
