Thick black toxic sludge still sticks to every part of Dean Wilson's Broadwater home north of Evans Head in the Northern Rivers region of NSW.
"I want to come home. I've been homeless for 10 weeks. I've been put up in decent accommodation but I'm not home," he said.
For the past 10 weeks, all Mr Wilson's worldly possessions have sat in his house, growing mouldy and covered in flood mud and sludge.
Until now.
This week, Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) test results confirm the contamination to be a mixture of oil and diesel, which could be seen swirling in the waters at the height of the flood.
And they have assumed responsibility for decontaminating his house.
"Even what they are doing here today, they've told me that they can't guarantee that it's going to be able to be made safe to be able to live in again," Mr Wilson said.
Mr Wilson's house is one of 24 in the village of Broadwater to be contaminated with toxic sludge.
Just down the road, Glen Costello and his family remain in limbo about whether to rebuild.
He managed to clean out their house before the EPA informed them that their house was too unfit to return to.
The EPA conducted tests in his backyard, which have found high levels of contamination.
But Mr Costello said they had failed to test where it mattered.
"They should really have done under the house because if these toxins or fumes are going to be there for 30 years, as they say in their report, it's not a good thing for us to go back," Mr Costello said.
Steve Orr from the NSW Environmental Protection Authority said they were working on each house on a case-by-case basis.
"Mr Costello's circumstances will be discussed with our expert consultant and staff over the coming weeks," Mr Orr said.
During the flood, thick black oil could be seen floating in the water and a fuel tank near the sugar mill could be seen to be leaking diesel.
Mr Orr said the EPA was not laying blame as to who was responsible for the contamination of the town.
"We believe that the contamination sources were from multiple sources, including large diesel tanks and oil associated with the operation of the sugar mill in the town. We haven't ruled out there could be other sources of contamination," he said.
But Mr Wilson said residents wanted answers.
"I would have thought they would have some responsibility to investigate how it happened and who is responsible and maybe let me know so I can get compensated," he said.
Mr Costello said the EPA should have prevented this situation from happening in the first place.
"If they were doing their job properly and had that storage facility properly in place, this wouldn't have happened," he said.
"We would have been washing down and getting back into it straight away.
"This is not happening. Is the EPA trying to hide things as well? What is going on?"
Mr Orr said the EPA was still investigating.
In the meantime, Mr Wilson just wanted to know when he could go home and begin to rebuild his life.
"I'd like to know the time frame for them to finish cleaning up," he said.
"I still haven't been told how they are going to do it, what's involved in doing it, and how long it's going to take. I just want some certainty around that."
