Just 15 of the 120 Mallacoota homes razed during the devastating 2019 bushfires have been rebuilt, leaving many of the town’s essential workers unable to find a place to live.
Mallacoota and District Recovery Association’s Kate Cowden says building a home would normally take two to three years without the further delays caused by the COVID pandemic and shortages of building materials.
“Generally, we have just a handful of builders, and everything has to be shipped such a long way to get the parts,” she says.
“It’s just hard to come by things locally, so our builders have a long, heavy schedule into the future.”
Many people who lost their homes in the fires have used insurance payouts to purchase rental properties already on the market in Mallacoota, pushing the tenants of those properties out of town.
Other renters who lost their homes were ineligible for the same emergency relief and compensation as property owners and were forced to fend for themselves or leave the region.
Ms Cowden says Mallacoota has been left with a limited workforce to service the town’s ageing population.
She says the supermarkets, restaurants, pub and abalone co-op were desperate for staff, particularly over the summer when the town’s population quadruples with tourists.
“There was a turnover of staff at the school. Even though new people have got the job, they can’t come and do the job because there’s no housing, so we’re short school teachers too,” Ms Cowden said
Slow rebuilds causing budget blowouts
A 30 per cent increase in the price of building materials has meant some homeowners who decided to wait out the up to 13-month council planning approval period and rebuild their homes found they could no longer afford to do so.
For some, that has meant modifying plans and starting the year-long council approval process again.
Importing builders to the town to fast track the rebuilds has also been hampered by a lack of affordable, long-term accommodation.
“The only things available are holiday homes at holiday home prices, which adds on to the cost of the build. So does the huge increase in the building material prices due to apparent shortages,” Ms Cowden said
Emergency and social housing red tape
Local government regulations surrounding caravan use and housing pod accommodation on private land or within the town’s caravan parks have also complicated the situation.
Long-term onsite tenancies have been restricted to private property owners awaiting rebuilds.
Although some people have succeeded in finding accommodation through billeting arrangements with locals, others have chosen to sleep rough or in their boats or sheds.
Estimating about 20 per cent of the population may require a form of social housing, Ms Cowden says the unsettling irony is that the town is abundant with empty, expensive holiday rentals.
Although some holiday home landlords have been generous enough to let out their short term rental properties as long term rentals to displaced residents, Ms Cowan believes social, and emergency housing is the answer.
“Basically, we just don’t have emergency housing,” she says.
“We lost all the emergency housing we had at 1 Betka Road in the fires, and we’ve been fighting for two years through the sheets of bureaucracy.
“We’re almost, but not quite there, with some short term modular housing for emergency housing on that block.”
Regional property boom adds to trauma
Ms Cowan says an influx of cashed-up buyers fleeing cities during the pandemic had contributed to rising house prices in the town.
She says a two-bedroom flat that would have sold for $250,000 five years ago would now sell for about $450,000.
Similarly, a modest three-bedroom rental property had increased from $170 per week to $370 per week.
“It’s very hard to get ahead financially,” Ms Cowan says.
Mallacoota’s working poor, who are also now contending with rising fuel and food expenses, typically had to work two or three jobs to make ends meet, she says, and the town could not expect to recover from the 2019 fires until the housing issue was fixed.
Ms Cowan says she fears bushfire victims forced to spend their insurance money moving from rental to rental and the younger population who face being unable to afford to live in their hometown.
