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| SMALL PRICE: Andrew Dunstone and his dog, Murray, will be high and dry if there's another flood like that of January 2011. |
EVERY day, at least twice a day, Andrew Dunstone carries his dog, Murray, down two flights of stairs for a comfort stop, then carries him back up again.
The regular trips down the stairs of his freshly raised Yeronga home are a bit rough on Mr Dunstone's 68-year-old knees but bone cancer has rendered the 13-year-old mutt's back left leg useless, making it impossible for him to scale the lofty new heights.
The routine is the price Mr Dunstone is willing to pay for the security of knowing that if it floods again, his home will be safe.
He's used the $110,000 insurance payout he received from Suncorp Insurance after the house was swamped in 2011 to put it on 4.5m-high steel stumps, taking the roofline to about 9m.
"If there's not another flood for 30 years, I'm not going to be here but there could be another one next year," said Mr Dunstone. "Nobody knows."
Mr Dunstone didn't know what to expect when talk of Brisbane flooding began to filter through the leafy neighbourhood two years ago.
He packed some personal belongings and left them with a friend, loaded a few things into the car but couldn't comprehend that his then two-storey home, about 800m from the river, could flood.
EVERY day, at least twice a day, Andrew Dunstone carries his dog, Murray, down two flights of stairs for a comfort stop, then carries him back up again.
The regular trips down the stairs of his freshly raised Yeronga home are a bit rough on Mr Dunstone's 68-year-old knees but bone cancer has rendered the 13-year-old mutt's back left leg useless, making it impossible for him to scale the lofty new heights.
The routine is the price Mr Dunstone is willing to pay for the security of knowing that if it floods again, his home will be safe.
He's used the $110,000 insurance payout he received from Suncorp Insurance after the house was swamped in 2011 to put it on 4.5m-high steel stumps, taking the roofline to about 9m.
"If there's not another flood for 30 years, I'm not going to be here but there could be another one next year," said Mr Dunstone. "Nobody knows."
Mr Dunstone didn't know what to expect when talk of Brisbane flooding began to filter through the leafy neighbourhood two years ago.
He packed some personal belongings and left them with a friend, loaded a few things into the car but couldn't comprehend that his then two-storey home, about 800m from the river, could flood.
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| Andrew Dunstone's Hyde Rd property in Yeronga was inundated by the January 2011 flood. |
When he rose at dawn on Wednesday, January 13, and saw a lake in the park across the road, he thought that would be the extent of the flooding. The sun was shining and he went back to bed.
A couple of hours later, Mr Dunstone awoke to find floodwaters halfway up the steps and the car submerged.
He grabbed Murray and the duo swam through the backyard to higher ground.
On his laptop, the IT consultant shows the photographs of the view that greeted him when the flood receded and he opened the door to the second level of his home. A lounge is on its side in a corner, broken knickknacks scattered all around. Mud is everywhere.
Suncorp was prepared to rebuild the house but a friend suggested raising it and drew up plans.
The insurer agreed to pay out what it would have cost to rebuild and Mr Dunstone came up with the extra $40,000 to create his eyrie.
It's been a long battle to rebuild, with Mr Dunstone renting at a friend's place for 18 months.
Now he and Murray have an improved view and a new deck that catches the breezes, and they can sleep a little easier.
"If you have been through a flood once, you don't want to go through it again," he said.
8.1.13
