A Menindee resident who was forced to leave her community more than seven weeks ago said it was a confronting but relieving experience to return home this week.
Karen Page was evacuated from her riverside property, about 4 kilometres downstream of the township of Menindee, by the SES in late December when the local Darling River catchment breached its banks.
Hers was among around 60 homes and other structures in and around the town that were impacted by the rising water in some way.
Floodwaters in the area peaked at record levels, slightly under 10.5 metres, in mid-January.
After the river levels returned to a safe level over the past couple of weeks, recovery agencies have taken over operations.
Since the family's rushed departure, Mrs Page has been staying temporarily in Broken Hill with her family.
"The longer it went on the worse it got, actually. It was more depressing not being home and not being in your normal life that you love," Mrs Page said.
An 'unrecognisable' sight
Many of the roads around Menindee, including the one leading up to Mrs Page's house, are still too damaged to use.
"Even where our road was you can't even recognise that there was ever a road there. It's just 1.3-metre-deep craters," she said.
Mrs Page said volunteers on Tuesday from the local Rural Fire Service brigade helped her to reach her house.
"They have a vehicle here which they usually use in the bushfires [and] used it to cut a track," she said.
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them."
Mrs Page described the state of the property as "unrecognisable", with paddocks filled with dead fish trapped in half-full puddles.
"It just looks like a war zone," she said.
"Everything is grey, like you see when something's been bombed."
As for the house itself, she said it was clear a lot of work needed to be done to return it to its original state.
"There's lots of spiders. Everything's covered in spider webs. But in our bottom section it's a bit devastating," she said.
"Things look OK standing there because it's dried out, but as soon as you try to move something it falls to pieces."
Returning to normal life
Mrs Page said the family is waiting for the insurance company to determine the extent of the flood damage.
But despite the wait, she can appreciate all is not lost.
Some of her neighbours were far worse off than she was, she said.
"Put it this way, we're going to have lots of wood for our campfire over winter," she said with a laugh.
"Some of the neighbours just down the road lost everything. So, I consider myself extremely lucky, and it's a one-in-a-50-year event so we'll clean up and continue on with our life."
Meanwhile, the NSW Reconstruction Authority — established to manage the state's flood recovery — has been in Menindee since the emergency began and was working with the community to evaluate the damage and provide support where needed.
The authority's senior recovery coordinator Simon Curry said the floods have had a big impact on the local community.
"This [flood] was so prolonged. The water was just hanging around for weeks," Mr Curry said.
"There's a lot of mud in houses. It's a devastating impact on the community, not just in the town itself but also the roads leading into town."
Mr Curry said the authority is around three-quarters of the way through the clean-up effort, with around 20 properties still needing to be washed out.
He said limited access to properties, and some residents waiting on insurance assessments before proceeding, means there was still a long way to go on the community's road to recovery.
"I'd [hopefully] say in the next two weeks there'll be a little light at the end of the tunnel," he said.
