Flood-hit residents wait almost four years for repairs amid tradie shortages

For almost four years, Jamie Bruce has been sleeping on a fold-out couch. Their family home at Morgan was inundated by floodwater during a major River Murray flood in 2022, just 10 months after moving in.

The flood destroyed the lower level of the home, washing away Jamie's bedroom and identity. "I was just starting to decorate the walls and get things to a state where the space was me," they said.

"Then I watched my little dragons that were on the wall slowly disappear under the water." Floodwaters peaked at 186 gigalitres a day, leaving only concrete and wooden cladding behind in Jamie's bedroom. "It looks like Armageddon in here," Jamie said.

Tradie and insurance 'nightmare'

Jamie's mum, Kay Bruce, describes the first 12 months following the flood as "a nightmare". The family spent five of those months living out of a friend's large tin shed. "Thinking about [that time] now still brings tears to my eyes," Ms Bruce said.

Frustrated by the delay for their insurer to send out a tradie, the family took a payout so they could source their own workers. "[I had] so many phone calls where they would never come back to me," she said.

"I've got a spreadsheet, and it shows just name after name after name." Despite trying to project-manage the rebuild, after three years Ms Bruce was still yet to have a tradesperson follow through and do the job. "I can't understand when people make arrangements to come and do work or make quotes and then just don't turn up, don't phone you, don't text you," she said.

"I feel like we are just treading water and are in limbo … we just want to get back to some resemblance of how things were." Her husband, Rob Bruce, said that while the process had been exhausting for the whole family, it came with a level of guilt.

"We have friends that lost their entire place and they're still in the caravan park whilst their houses are being built," Mr Bruce said. "We'd feel bad knowing that our place was all done and they're still in the caravan park waiting."

Material costs through the roof

The cost to build a new home has risen by almost 40 per cent since 2021, according to the Insurance Council of Australia. Social policy, climate and international engagement manager Alix Pearce says this is a growing national issue.

"The average cost to build a home has increased 30 per cent nationally over the last five years, which considerably outstrips inflation at 24 per cent," she said. "We're seeing this [rise] in materials and labour costs, too; for example, roof tiles have gone up 77 per cent over the last five years."

Ms Pearce said state and federal governments needed to do more to uplift their investment in housing resilience and address tradie shortages across the country. "The cost of extreme weather is rising considerably … last year disasters drove $4 billion worth of insured losses," she said.

Building up the workforce

There is currently a 141,000-person skilled workers shortage nationally, according to Master Builders Australia. In South Australia, about 20,000 workers are required over the next five years to meet major project and housing demand, according to a state government spokesperson.

The spokesperson said it has committed $11 million over the next two years, alongside the federal government, to help the travel expenses of rural or regional apprentices travelling long distances to keep them on the job.

"The new measure will support an additional 400 regional apprentices and trainees to undertake their training," the statement said. It also said it was building three new technical colleges, including in Murray Bridge, and a new TAFE Trades Workshop in Mount Barker, which aims to support 1,200 additional construction trade apprentices.

Mid Murray Council chief executive Andrew Johnson said any commitment is welcome as his regional community continues to recover from the 2022-23 flood while experiencing trade shortages.

"We have a number of open spaces and reserves along the river that still need to be rehabilitated [post-flood] and still need irrigation systems put back in," he said.

Mental and physical recovery

While grateful to be back living in their family home, the Bruce family said their life by the river was filled with complex and conflicting feelings. They said a completed home would help give them some closure.

"I'm grateful for where we are, it's paradise really," Kay Bruce said. "But I'm probably not as happy as I used to be, not as cheerful, not as satisfied with life." "If you promise to come and help, please do it, please follow through."