Alison Norris looks admiringly around the simple two-bedroom home that has housed her and her three children for the past nine months. From the outside, it looks like a demountable found at a construction site, bordered by a tidy native garden. But it’s more than she has had in the nearly five years since the worst flood in Australia’s history took her family home away.
“I used to have to walk around at night getting canisters of water to flush the toilet,” she says. This time last year they were living in a squat; now she is at her own dining room table, frequently popping up to point out the features of her home with the energy of someone who doesn’t like to sit still. “This one has got walls and it’s got air conditioning and a fridge and electricity.”
