Mick Haisman has found himself in the difficult position of having to “play god’’, fielding as many as 100 phone calls a day regarding the availability of accommodation at his caravan park in Rochester.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
He has had a constant stream of inquiries from people whose homes have been destroyed by the floods and are in desperate need of temporary accommodation, along with corporate requests to house tradesmen involved in the repair and clean-up of vital community facilities.
“I’ve found it pretty tough to make a couple of calls, in one instance there was a company desperately needing accommodation for its workers because they were responsible for getting the hospital back up and running,” Mick said.
“I thought that was quite important and was able to get them in.”
Strangely enough, and indicative of his community first nature, he could not wait for the development of the Emergency Victoria site development at Elmore — which will initially be home to 400 displaced Rochester people.
It will relieve the need for those heart-wrenching calls for assistance that have been a constant for him since he was able to prepare flood-damaged accommodation for habitation.
“What is happening at Elmore (the temporary accommodation) is sensational,” he said.
“Everywhere I go people ask about cabins.
“There is unprecedented demand and we can only house about 120 people.”
Mick and wife Rita built the Rochester Caravan Park in Pascoe St from the ground up, four years ago, having decided they never wanted to go through the events of 2011 again.
At that point the couple was in charge of the riverside caravan park, where they spent two decades.
The major financial commitment to purchase the seven and a half acre site, neighbouring the Rochester and District Elmore Health Service, was starting to reap rewards — until the events of October 14 to 18.
“Because of COVID, as it was for everyone else, we suffered for almost two years,” Mick said.
“We had experienced had our best eight months of business leading up to this (flood).”
The Haisman family is well known in Rochester, Mick’s grandfather was the former editor of the Rochester Irrigator, his mother Peg is a popular member of the community and he has held a variety of leadership roles in the town, including at the hospital.
Mick, and his mother, live in Victoria St and have been impacted by the floods.
His focus has been on the caravan park, while his brother has been working on repairs to their mother’s home and wife Rita has bore the responsibility of dealing with the recovery at their own home.
About 40cm of water went through their Victoria St home and they have been staying with friends, Gary and Lisa Milligan, at Lockington while the recovery work continues.
The Haismans have recently started stage one of their permanent-living project, selling three of a planned 30 units at the south and west of the caravan park site.
“Fortunately they survived,” Mick said.
Also unaffected were about half of the 30 cabins on the site and the office area, while some caravans on the eastern extremeties were also spared damage.
“It is a much better outcome than 2011. That was terrible and cost us about $450,000,” he said.
Flood insurance at the Haismans’ former riverside park was $70,000 a year and having done his research Mick was unable to secure any flood insurance for the new site.
“The quote meant it wasn’t worth pursuing,” he said.
Mick said the caravan park site would have remained untouched if floodwaters had not exceeded 115 metres (above sea level).
“We had meetings here on Wednesday and Thursday night before the floods,” he said.
“They first thought it would peak at 115, which would have made us okay.
“But when it his 115.5 we were in trouble and 30 people who decided to stay had to be rescued by the fire brigade.”
There are about 100 people who live on site, of those 70 had left before the floodwaters hit.
Mick said the assistance of Lee and Adam Hamilton, along with Corey Dennis was instrumental in the brigade being able to swiftly get people off site.
Since the waters have receded Mick and his team, including several volunteers, have repaired and cleaned the units that were marginally affected by the floods.
“I am lucky that I have been involved in footy clubs. The boys from Kangaroo Flat (where Mick was an assistant coach to former Rochester coach James Flaherty) and some of the people from Kyabram (where he was also an assistant to Rochester legend Dave Williams) came over to help clean,” he said.
Mick said there had been a fair bit of damage to the brand-new camp kitchen and to some fences on the property.
He and the volunteers had, however, been able to make all the affected cabins safe to live in.
There are also about a dozen powered sites available, along with a handful of concrete slabs for caravans.
“The amenities didn’t go under, but both my mowers went under,” he said.
“If I can get a hold of a mower I will have those powered sites, which are on lawn, ready for people.”
Mick said he expected an influx of trade inquiries as insurance claims were assessed, and approved.
“They may have to stay at Echuca, Elmore, Lockington or Kyabram,” he said.
Mick said once things “were back on track’’ one of the jobs on his to-do list would be to raise all those cabins that were affected by the flood by 10cm.
“The water came from two directions, down Pascoe St and from the rear of the property,” he said.
“We will be ready next time for a flood of this magnitude.”
He will celebrate his 60th birthday this week and — being the last person to feel sorry for himself — he did suggest that the flood had put his retirement plans back by two or three years.
In the meantime people can expect that Mick is doing the best he can to provide accommodation options for as many people as he can.
Contributor