Pigeon Hole flood evacuees blame NT government for failure to build on higher ground

Residents in the tiny outback community of Pigeon Hole who were forced to take shelter from rising floodwaters in a lean-to say the government failed to heed their warnings to build on high ground.

Homes inundated by floodwaters in Pigeon Hole last wet season.

Residents in Pigeon Hole say they have been forced to flee their homes for the second time in as many wet seasons because the NT government failed to build their houses on higher ground.

Jocelyn Victor was one of about 40 residents forced to take shelter from rising floodwaters in the tiny outback community north of Kalkarindji after the Victoria River broke its banks this week.

Ms Victor was one of a handful of Pigeon Hole locals who stayed behind when many of the others were flown to Darwin on Thursday after holing up in a lean-to for several days.

“We organised ourselves to come on top of this shelter here, emergency shelter, there’s 40 people in it, you’ve got one-and-a-half sides it’s got iron and the other half is open,” she said.

“We’ve got six elderly and we’ve got three infants, like under six months.”

Ms Victor said power to the community had been switched off and the group of flood refugees was having trouble accessing food without any government support.

“Yesterday we were hungry, we were asking the Outback Store manager where can we get our emergency funding, because we’ve got old people here who are hungry, we’ve got nothing to eat,” she said.

“The babies need milk, the oldies need a feed, there was nothing yesterday, we’ve got some contractors here that have been doing our houses, they supplied us with food.

“Where’s the help when you need it?”

Ms Victor said adding insult to injury was the fact the same residents had been evacuated to Howard Springs last wet season, only to have their now temporary homes inundated once again.

“We have approximately about 100 people living here but no help, every wet like this,” she said.

“We asked government to build the houses on top, no, they keep building it down at the flood zone area and since we came back from Howard Springs, houses aren’t ready, we’re living in temporary housing.

“We even asked NTG to build our houses on higher ground last year when we was at Howard Springs, no, they put it down there again.”

Remote Housing and Homelands Minister Selena Uibo said discussions were ongoing as to where the modular and transportable houses could be relocated to.

“We understand the frustrations of the Pigeon Hole community, having faced the uncertainty of two major flood events within a year,” she said.

“There are currently discussions underway involving the NLC and a neighbouring pastoralist station to identify a suitable location to relocate these houses.”

She said repairs on damaged houses was also continuing.

“The Territory government has rebuilt seven of the 19 homes in the community,” she said.

“Repairs were also carried out on the remaining homes and community buildings that were damaged in flooding last year to allow the residents to move back into their own homes while a solution to find a new area for housing continues.”

Originally published as Pigeon Hole flood evacuees blame NT government for failure to build on higher ground