At Timber Creek's small general store, a huge batch of post has arrived — the first in three weeks.
Outside, a group of elderly Indigenous people hop off a bus: medical evacuees who were flown to safety, and are now on their way back to Aboriginal homelands nearby.
The reopening of the Victoria Highway last Sunday ended almost three weeks of isolation for these Top End communities.
Timber Creek's homes escaped the floodwaters unscathed, despite the Victoria River swelling past the previous 1991 record level in this part of the catchment.
But the enormous body of water that sat still for weeks has imprinted itself on the landscape, killing swathes of grass.
As the recovery phase begins, stories of survival and questions over the adequacy of the government's response are emerging.
Bulla local says 'nobody was listening'
Half an hour's drive west of Timber Creek, down a road lined by gigantic boab trees, is the Indigenous community of Bulla.
While some medically vulnerable people were evacuated along with kids in their care, locals said around 15 houses were still occupied through the three weeks of isolation.
Bulla was cut off from all shops, and travelling on the closed highway was punishable with big fines.
There was one supply drop of food and pre-paid power cards by helicopter, but locals say it was not nearly enough.
"The food wasn't coming," local teacher Penny Archie said.
"I was calling, calling and calling. But nobody was listening. And the food that came was only just for half of the community — the [other] half of them had to miss out.
"Some houses have been out of power for weeks."
The community shared its limited supplies, with families moving from house to house to get enough electricity to cook dinner, and some cooking on campfires.
The neighbouring Auvergne cattle station came to the community's aid, donating a "killa" — a freshly killed carcass.
"The station knew that people up here were hungry," fellow educator Rhonda Kayleen Henry said.
With the lack of refrigeration, people had to try to eat as much of it as they could, before the meat started to go off.
'No one was left starving'
NT Minister for Emergency Services Brent Potter dismissed concerns about food supplies in Bulla at a press conference on Wednesday.
"No one was left starving," Mr Potter said, citing government efforts to check with local stores about their levels of supplies.
"As needed, we'd fly food out there."
But tight eligibility criteria for one-off hardship payments have also come into question.
The payments, which are joint funded with the Commonwealth under federal disaster arrangements, are designed to help people meet food, transport and clothing costs.
In the region around Timber Creek, they have been largely restricted to people who were evacuated.
Ms Henry, a teacher, was stuck outside the community at the height of the floods as she tried to make it back for the start of school term.
She said she was forced to spend more than $7,000 on food and accommodation in Katherine.
She arrived back in Bulla "with not a cent in my pocket" to find her home without power and two freezers of food that had gone bad.
She is not eligible for a hardship payment.
The emergency services minister said he understood people's frustration.
"But in the first instance, it's about making sure they survive and we get them to a safe place," he said.
"Everyone will get funding at a particular time during the recovery phase".
An NT government representative later clarified that the minister meant everyone who had directly been affected by floods could call the assistance hotline and be considered for funding, even if they did not meet the criteria.
Thousands of wandering cattle
Cattle can be seen wandering all along the Victoria Highway as pastoralists struggle to fix fences and contain their stock.
Raine Holcombe, who runs horses and cattle on a property on Timber Creek's outskirts, said 90 per cent of her fences were down.
Ms Holcombe, too, questioned the lack of food supplies for the Timber Creek township itself.
She and her husband chartered a helicopter and did a grocery run for neighbours — a step she said should not have been necessary.
"I'm pretty disgusted with the lack of support that the government has offered," she said.
Call for improved drainage
To the East of Timber Creek, the Victoria River Roadhouse was inundated by the flood.
Its owner Milton Jones said he too had hundreds, if not thousands, of cattle unaccounted for from his nearby station.
The pub has survived in reasonable condition, but fast-flowing floodwaters have made a mess of the adjoining travellers' accommodation.
Out the back, sheds and workers' cabins have been uprooted.
And large sinkholes were left on the access road connecting the roadhouse to the highway, which Mr Jones is working to repair himself.
On the wall inside the roadhouse there's a marker for the 1991 flood level. The water stain from this flood is a little lower here, but Mr Jones said it did more damage.
He wants the government to invest in better drainage infrastructure quickly, before the next flood comes.