Rochester residents say insurers are dragging their feet, sidelining local tradies

"People are still living with families in caravans out the front of their house, they're living in containers. It's terrible," he says.

Mr Schepers has been working in the town for around five weeks, fielding one or two calls a day since a client posted his details to Facebook.

While there are workers from as far away as Queensland, as well as Shepparton and Echuca, in Rochester, there is not enough work happening to "get people back in" to their houses, he says.

Although he would encourage more - particularly Bendigo-based - tradespeople to join the effort, the main problem as he sees it is the hold-up caused by insurance and big building companies.

Stanhope tradesman Scott Glover agrees.

Mr Glover, who does building maintenance work like bathroom repairs that can make damaged houses livable again, has picked up a few small jobs in the town but not the volume of work he expected.

"I've registered my interest with the building company that's predominantly in charge of the big jobs in Echuca and Rochester but heard nothing back," he said.

"I get the feeling that anything that's going to be done is going to be done through Melbourne."

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Rochester Business Network vice president Tracie Kyne shares the view that insurance companies are holding up recovery and sidelining local workers.

"It's funny that the uninsured seem to be in a better position than the insured," says the former community bank manager, who is living in someone else's house with her elderly parents while negotiating with her insurers.

"We have so many people with flooded out houses who've not had confirmation from insurance companies they can proceed with the work," she says.

"I know of a 96-year-old lady who's living in her driveway."

Rochester's business network, like most local residents, wants to see work go to local workers, especially when they are on the ground ready to do it, she says.

"We're all about shopping local - and when I say local I mean Bendigo too - and we should be doing that in this sort of disaster."

But she believes the insurance companies are contracting their own builders and "cutting our local tradies out".

That shouldn't be happening, according to IAG (Insurance Australia Group), which owns some of the insurance brands Rochester flood victims are dealing with.

A spokesperson for the company told the Bendigo Advertiser: "IAG's policy is to use local trades and suppliers, wherever possible, to support communities impacted by severe weather and natural disasters in their recovery.

"If there's an increased demand for trades, or specialists are required, our builders may draw on trades from the wider area or state to provide the most efficient possible experience for our customers and to ensure they can return to their home as soon as they can."

IAG had received 473 claims following the Rochester flooding, and had finalised 72 of them, the spokesperson said, adding that its teams had been mobilised as quickly as possible to provide support, including temporary accommodation, and that assessors and partner builders had been arranging emergency "make-safe repairs" after inspecting damage to properties.

For Ms Kyne, and many others, the insurers' top speed isn't fast enough.

"We pay our insurances so we're protected when something like this happens," she says.

"All we want is for our houses to be fixed and to get on with things, but things are just broken. There's so much that's at a standstill.

"This is tiring, this part. It's really testing."

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