“They were going to take me as well, but they couldn’t take our two dogs.”

“There was a moment there where we thought we might not get the dogs out, so when that did happen, it was quite a relief.”

“I’ve got to be here [for the cleanup], but it’s getting harder to get out of bed.”

Sam Halloran and his neighbours resorted to starting a fire to burn off debris left by the floods, their entire street lined with mud, household goods, pieces of fencing and walls, as residents launched into a massive cleanup effort. Source: SBS News

Insurance ‘skyrocketed’ after 2021 floods

Leigh, Sam’s father, says he purchased insurance on the same home in 2002.

In NSW, the average combined policy costs $2,210, based on homes valued between $300,000 and $1.5 million with $50,000 in contents cover.

Sam Halloran was looking forward to raising his son on this picturesque street in Glenthorne, NSW. But he says insurance was out of reach for him and all of his neighbours. Source: SBS News

Insurance companies, government under pressure to address growing problem

“We need to come up with a flood defence fund that can better flood-proof those properties, that can lift the home out of harm’s way and, worst-case scenario, we may have to look at buybacks.”

Huge amounts of debris washed up against the back porch of this home in Taree show the scale of the damage caused by the floods. Source: SBS News

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, also speaking in Taree on Tuesday, acknowledged “there are longer-term issues that need to be looked at” to address the insurance problem.

“But our focus now is on the cleanup and recovery from this event. That’s our focus, the immediate needs.”

“We need machinery. At my place alone, there is something like 400 trucks worth of silt to get rid of.”

Insurance hike set to become ‘unfathomable’

“I’d be onto the broker every second day. It would cost me $20,000 [to] $30,000 a year just to have everything insured if I could insure it. And, I mean, mostly [the insurance companies] just shake their head.”

Feed producer Daryl Hammond told SBS News his business was impossible to insure, given the seasonal nature of his industry, and the flood-prone area in which he operates. Source: SBS News

For Hammond, the Hallorans and their neighbours, they want to see change. The community wants to keep living where they have deep roots and connections, but also wants a way to protect their future.