11 months since Molong Floods: Elizabeth and Anthony 'Bruno' Bennett

Picking up the pieces inside their deluged house on Gidley Street, Molong's Elizabeth and Anthony "Bruno" Bennett are "still battling along" to put their home back together, nearly 12-months on.

Unwanted or pre-loved items replace former waterlogged and damaged furnishings, but "buggered" wardrobes, a second-hand mattress from Cowra and a busted fence still serve as daily reminders of the November 14 wreckage.

"It's all second-hand or used, but we never buy a lot of things that are brand new, because we just can't afford stuff like that, but we've been getting by," Mr Bennett said.

"The clothes cupboards are all buggered, they're just in there leaning against the wall, because if we try to move them, they'll just fall apart.

"But we just tried to do things as cheap as they could go, we would've had to take out a loan otherwise.

"And if people think 20k goes a long way to replace everything, it doesn't."

Trying to stretch funds as far as possible, Mr Bennett's car has been guzzling fuel to travel across the region.

Hunting down items in a determined bid to collect used bargains, the couple has slowly been restoring their home to a state of normality.

Second-hand carpet was sourced a fortnight ago, along with a recent find of lower kitchen cupboards - a used pantry Mr Bennett picked up from Grenfell, more than 110-kilometres away.

"The cost of fuel with travelling to all kinds of different places to collect stuff has been pretty dear, but what do you do when you have to make it work and you can't change things?," he said.

"We got new lounge chairs for both of us, they're pretty good. I mean, not brand new, but everything's getting there and we're still battling along."

But peeling paint still lines inside walls, exterior cladding is now cracked and warped, and fencing around the house no longer provides what was once a fully-enclosed yard.

"We can't do any more, though, because I don't have any more money; it's all gone," Mr Bennett said.

"I don't know what would've happened without the grant, though, and we got an email rejecting our [insurance] claim. That was no surprise, we were expecting a battle.

"But I can't fight any of it, how could I?"

Mr Bennett says the letter from the insurance company knocked back the couple's claim following a hydrologist report.

He says the water damage in the house - a level climbing the wall to nearly waist height - was deemed a result of floodwater.

"They said it wasn't from storm water, even though it came from that direction, which was after Bank Street," he said.

"But what insurance company says 'we'd love to pay you'? They're happy to take your money and they made flood insurance that dear after the last one, that you couldn't afford to cover yourself, anyway."

Molong's main street flooding of its businesses and surrounding houses in 2005 was believed to be the town's worst, exceeding marked levels from the 1956 and 1990 floods.

The rapidly-rising flash flooding in 2022, however, is now the current record-holder after the Molong Creek peaked beyond four-metres-high - displacing hundreds in Eugowra as it travelled there at pace.

"The floodwater in '05 got to about skirting board height inside, but they said it was a 'one-in-100-years' flood," Mr Bennett said.

"The one in November [2022] was right up the wall here, maybe a whole foot-and-a-half higher, even more.

"But at least my house is still on its foundation; other people had their whole homes destroyed."

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