Situated on the picturesque River Murray,
the Kingston on Murray Caravan Park is the place to
stay when visiting this small country town.
But a year ago, the very thing that attracts tourists
here swept that all away I
can't even describe. It was just heartbreaking
to watch everything just go under,
all in slow motion.
The owners spent about
$300,000 building this levee around the park before it was
hit by it's biggest flood in 60 years.
But they were evacuated before they could finish.
I could just see the trickles start coming over the
top and
that's it guys. Get out now,
you know? So we didn't.
I just sat there for an hour and watched it
come in.
Only allowed back in three months ago,
Work is underway to get the park back up and
running by Easter.
How long before you're able to actually dredge all the
water out as well?
Yeah 'cause it acted like a big dam.
So it nearly took me two weeks to pump it
all out.
Missing out on 2 Christmas seasons,
$800,000 out of pockets and not knowing whether insurance would
come through.
They weren't sure that they'd stick it out.
Tossed back and forth, but in the end,
it sort of really came down to the town and
they've given us so much
support. And if the town loses its caravan park,
there's a, you know, a lot of other smaller businesses
rely on the tourism we bring in here
for their businesses. I can't believe it rained today.
For Jeff and Bob Calvert,
this is also their home and they're just starting to
move back in plan of attack for tomorrow.
But I don't know, scratching my head.
There's still so much more.
I haven't even moved the office back here because of
all the rain today.
While in the end this levy wasn't enough to save
this 50 year old caravan park,
the Calverts are determined to keep it's story going because
they know if they can bounce back their community can
too.
It's been a hard recovery for a community of around
300 people with the closure of it's general store threatening
to ship their post office out of town,
so Bob Calvert put a hand up to help.
Morning Sheridan. Thanks for that,
I said. Well, we've got to keep the post office.
So I said, yeah, if we need,
that's the only way to have it open.
I'll do it for now.
But yeah, it's might be for the long haul.
Makes it easiest for us people in Kingston to still
have a a letterbox to go to.
She hopes they can keep the office local by eventually
moving it to the caravan park,
helping her push through a tough period of her life.
It's our home, our business.
I just didn't want to
know any more about it and and just bury my
head and Christmas Day we spent in bed and didn't
want to open the door,
didn't you know, want to see anyone.
It wasn't a time of celebrating at all,
but with the support of neighbours,
happier times could be around the corner.
Jeff and I've come up here and we've really loved
the area and that's all we have
a community battered and bruised but far from beaten.