River Murray floods: Massive tree wrecks Punyelroo shack of owner Steve Trigg

A raging River Murray has carried a massive 20m gum tree through a window and into the second storey dining area of a shack at Punyelroo. See the incredible before and after pictures.

The inside of the shack is like a war zone. The fridge somehow sits on a 45 degree angle on top of a couch and is nearly touching the ceiling.

The water has somehow lifted a bulky, heavy kitchen cupboard around a corner to a place it has never been before.

Tables and chairs lie strewn across a once-neat kitchen and everything is hiding under a thick layer of leaves, bark and other organic matter washed up by this summer’s historic River Murray flood.

Oh, and then there’s the huge, 20-metre-long river red gum that floated down from upstream and smashed its way through a window at the height of the flow and is now at rest where a retro dining table once took pride of place.

But it’s not the inside of the South Punyelroo shack that bothers Steve Trigg the most. It’s the front deck. More specifically, it’s the ruined barbecue on the front deck. And what’s left of the nearby bench where you could once rest your drinks as you watched the cliffs on the other side of the river come to light at sunset.

Because it’s out here the Trigg family has been making memories for the past 16 years. It’s out here Mr Trigg would wait for the perfect late-afternoon light – when the golden limestone cliffs start to flicker a luminescent orange – and snap a photo, in the foreground of which would be a line of drinks on the bench tops. He’d then post that “happy hour shot” to Facebook.

It’s out here Mr Trigg, his wife Belinda, their children – twins Lauren and Caitlin, now 22, Patrick, 20, and Teagan, 15 – and friends have spent countless dusks admiring the might and wonder of the River Murray lapping at the base of a retainer wall just metres below.

“My poor old barbecue’s not looking so good,” he says as he shows us around the damage caused by the biggest River Murray flood in nearly 70 years.

“This bothers me more than that (the damage inside) because this is my spot. This is where we used to hang out a lot.”

His voice trails away for a second before the tour of the wrecked shack continues.

Nearby, daughter Lauren is reflecting on a lifetime of memories and taking photos to record the historic devastation. She was seven when her parents bought this shack, at Punyelroo, just downstream from Swan Reach, about 130km east of Adelaide.

Mr Trigg grew up enjoying his parents’ shack at Hindmarsh Island and wife Belinda’s family loved camping on the river near Cadell. The couple bought their first boat in the late 1990s and spent a decade or so towing it up the highway to Murray Bridge on weekends. When this shack came up for sale in late 2006, they were attracted by its unique position so close to the river. They received the keys in January, 2007 and this is their third flood. In 2011 and 2016 the water was only about a metre deep under the shack. This year, it reached nearly 1.5 metres above the top-storey floorboards.

Considering the devastation, Mr Trigg is relatively upbeat as shows us through what’s left of the modest, three-bedroom house, and he knows there are many much worse off than them.

No-one knows exactly how many properties and structures were inundated, but the best estimates put the number of flooded homes and shacks around the 4000 mark. Of those, about 350 were primary residences.

Mr Trigg admits he was pedantic when it came to insurance, so he knows he’ll have no financial worries when it comes to rebuilding. He knows there are others who aren’t as fortunate. And he knows there are others who have lost their home, rather than their shack.

“I sort of think, well, you know, this is a weekender, so don’t beat yourself up too much,” he says. “But still, it’s pretty hard to look at. It’s a bit sad. We have had a lot of great times up here. But it is what it is…”

The concrete under their shack first went under water on October 21 and did not resurface until four months later in late February. By this stage, the once beautiful lush lawns all of the tight-knit South Punyelroo community had long enjoyed resembled a soppy, brown mud flat.

The Triggs knew this flood was going to be a big one, and had expected the water to reach their top storey. But they hadn’t expected it to go so high. And they hadn’t expected a massive river red gum from somewhere upriver to meander down with the current and lodge itself into their kitchen – more than five metres above the normal waterline.

There were no tears when they returned to the shack a few weeks ago for the first time since the water started receding and noticed a tree in their kitchen or their fridge nearly touching the roof.

Steve Trigg standing next to the massive tree that has smashed into his property. The tree floated into house from upstream when the water was high. Picture: Ben Clark

“We just thought, sh*t, this is going to be bad,” Mr Trigg says. “When we could see the water was that deep (inside the house), we knew it was going to be bad.

“If all this could be wiped out and replaced next week, and it’s all back to normal, then happy days. But it’s going to be a couple of years before we can really get back into it, and that’s probably the worst part about it for us.”

They’re still not sure what the future holds. Mr Trigg says his mind is constantly rotating through about 18 different scenarios – ranging from rebuilding the shack from scratch to selling up completely. A lot depends on the insurance assessment. They’re hoping the shack won’t need bulldozing. But even if they are able to reclad the existing metal frame, Mr Trigg is not sure he’s ready to risk taking people out behind his speedboat.

“I’m still worried about what’s sitting out there,” Mr Trigg says, gesturing out to the river which still has another metre or so to drop before it gets back to pool level.

“I was at my neighbour’s place the other night and I say to him ‘I don’t want to take your kids on the tube because if they fall off, and there’s a tree trunk four inches under the surface…. it’s all bad news’.”

Steve Trigg sitting in what was the kitchen of his Shack. Picture: Ben Clark

MEMO TO SA: COME BACK, WE’RE OPEN

Glen and Katryna Brown fulfilled a longtime dream when they took over running the Pulyenroo Caravan Park in September.

A month later, these dreams were up-ended when it became evident much of the picturesque park on the banks of the River Murray was about to go under water.

The spent the next couple of months preparing for the biggest flood in nearly 70 years and then, in the week before Christmas, closed the park. They were closed for about six weeks – an scenario they reckon cost them between $80,000 and $90,000.

When the water finally started to recede in February, the Punyelroo Caravan Park’s lush green manicured riverfront lawn was replaced with the ubiquitous brown mud casing hundreds of kilometres of bank from Murray Bridge to the border.

Punyelroo Caravan Park owners Katryna and Glan Brown. Picture: Ben Clark

Now, the Browns are working around the clock to clean up the mess so that their community of more than 80 semipermanent residents can return for the March long weekend.

As the water was rising, they made the tough decision to move all semi-permanents to a higher level. And now, as the rebuild from the mess, they plan to create a new area of powered and non-powered sites where those semipermanent shacks once stood.

“Everyone has said ‘Oh, you poor buggers’ but I see it (the flood) as a reason to redevelop,” Mr Brown says. “You’ve got to (somehow make a positive out of a negative), it’s not worth whinging about it.”

Despite the chaotic start to their tenure, the couple, originally from Renmark, still plan to retire at the Park.

“We just love it here,” Mr Brown says as he takes a break from removing debris swept down in the flood.

And he has a pretty clear message for the rest of South Australia – come back to the river.

“We’re open again, and it’s only going to get better, for sure,” he says. “It’s going to be a magic area.”