ROGER and Loraine Terrill had just finished renovating their home when flood waters hit Newbridge last January.Roger, a builder, watched as water inundated the house and destroyed everything in its path.The damage bill was about $150,000. Insurance covered $20,000.It’s taken 12 months and hours upon hours of back-breaking work for the Terrills to rebuild their lives.After living in a camper van for about a month, they moved into their shed for another six months.

Video: Remembering the 2011 Newbridge floodsTheir brick home still hasn’t completely dried out – the ground’s damp underneath, there’s still moisture on the walls and the paint’s peeling off in places – but they’re making do.“There were probably three or four houses in the area that water went into,” Roger said. “I’d say our house probably had the most water in it.”The Terrill’s property is located about 800 metres from the Loddon River and is next door to the Newbridge Football Ground which was also devastated by the January 14 flood.“We had no warning at all,” Roger said. “The only warning we had was when we got out of bed on the Friday morning and saw the water down the bottom here, and within five hours it was in the yard here.” Gallery: More 2011 Bendigo Addy reader flood pics Loraine remembers packing all the essentials – phone chargers, glasses, prescriptions and family photos – but their main concern was protecting their cars and machinery from the rising water.“We had a friend’s machinery here and no keys,” she said. “So then we had to start the saga of trying to get the Bobcat moved and our friend was in Melbourne at the time with the keys ... so that was a saga in itself, trying to get that safe from the water.“Roger started to get the boat out and the camper out and we could see then it was going to go through the shed ... and then it kept creeping towards the house so I had to get the car out.”The muddy water rose about a metre inside the Terrill’s home.“It did a lot of damage to all the furniture and the carpets and the cupboards and everything was pretty much brand new. The tiles in the bathroom, it sort of wiped all of that out,” Roger said. “All the furniture got wet ... a lot of stuff went up the tip.”Friends, family and even the local football and netball club helped the Terrills with the ensuing clean-up.“It was pretty exhausting,” Roger said. “It was something that was pretty hard to get your head around, but you’ve sort of got to get on with life and away you go.”Loraine said the pair have learnt to take things one day at a time.“We went through a whole gamut of emotions. One day would be different than the next. It wasn’t so much the material side of things straight up. It was more the fact Roger had put so much work in to bring his family home back to life. He’d spent about three years putting all the love back into the home and making it look lovely ... It was very much a roller coaster year.”