Lyn Newton is looking forward to an extravagant seafood meal this Christmas Day.
She will sit down at a long table with up to 60 others who are also displaced from their homes in Rochester, 180 kilometres north of Melbourne, due to catastrophic flooding in October.
Despite the joy of the day, Ms Newton says she will not be able to keep one devastating thought from her mind.
Just days ago, she and almost 200 other displaced residents living at a temporary village at Elmore, north-east of Bendigo, were told they would have to find another place to live by August 15, when the site will be shut down.
While this may seem a long way away, many residents are not expecting their homes to be habitable for up to 18 months.
"The news hit me like a tonne of rocks," Ms Newton said
Fear of the unknown
The temporary village of caravans and portable accommodation buildings was set up at the Elmore Field Days site following flooding that displaced hundreds of people from their home in Rochester.
Paddocks of grass were transformed into a pop-up community, with roads, kitchens, a community centre, toilets and showers set up within weeks.
Ms Newton was one of the early ones to move in.
She was offered a spot after being rescued from waist-deep floodwaters in Rochester and spending nights sleeping on the floor of a golf club with her dog Jasper.
Ms Newton has lived in the town for 25 years.
She said she was traumatised by the flood event that destroyed 90 per cent of her possessions.
Support provided by professionals and new friends at the Elmore village has helped Ms Newton feel "human again".
She said her biggest wish was to return to her home.
But Ms Newton said she was grateful to have the option to live at the Elmore village while her house was uninhabitable.
She said the staff there had gone "above and beyond" to make their experience positive, and she did not know where she would live otherwise.
Ms Newton said she was not expecting to be able to return home for 18 months.
"We are all feeling a bit of anxiety and are anxious to know what is going to happen," she said.
"Where will I go?
"The hard thing is it is not up to me. It makes me feel really sad."
'Short-term solution'
Emergency Recovery Victoria acting chief executive Sue Jamieson said in a statement the Elmore temporary accommodation site was "only ever intended to be a short-term solution".
"Over the next eight months, ERV will work with the residents at the Elmore Events Centre and partner organisations like Anglicare Victoria to find solutions for ongoing accommodation needs of Rochester residents," Ms Jamieson said.
"ERV staff have been on site at Elmore this week to answer any questions residents have."
Anglicare Victoria north central regional director Michael Oerlemans says staff on site will continue to support the residents and help them find alternative accommodation by August.
"At the moment, I am not sure what those accommodation options will be," he said.
"But I am confident there will be people working hard over the next few months to make sure there will be options available for residents who are not able to go back into their homes."
For now, Ms Newton and other residents are trying to remain positive and get into the Christmas spirit.
On Friday, she and others spent the day wrapping presents for all the children in the village.
Ms Newton described an elaborate Christmas Day menu of prawns, oysters and other seafood and said she was grateful for the cooks who would give up Christmas lunch with their families to put on the meal for them.
"We're just taking each day as it comes," she said.
