In a sign of how far recovery efforts have progressed since the February flooding disaster, the Blaze Aid team of volunteers is finally packing up and moving out of Winton.
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Blaze Aid's Winton camp coordinator Barry Thompson will be driving almost 2,500 kilometres home to Mount Gambier in South Australia after the camp wrapped-up on Friday.
He said he would always have a soft spot for the people of Winton and he was looking forward to seeing the shire's progress in a couple of years.
"I've had plenty of offers to go and stay on properties and it would be nice to come back in two years' time and just spend some time out here," he said.
"I keep saying to my wife that I've got more friends in western Queensland than I do back home in Mount Gambier."
Mr Thompson came back to Winton after helping with Blaze Aid's drought recovery efforts in Richmond in 2014, in Hughenden in 2015 and Winton in 2016.
"I was coming back to Winton after being here three years ago.
"You were dealing with a lot of the same people and it was like nothing had changed - you knew the stock agents and the folks at the bakery and nothing had changed."
Although this year's Winton camp officially wrapped up with a fitting send off at the Winton Hotel, Mr Thompson said a few keen volunteers were sticking around.
"I've still got volunteers that have elected to stay on to finish some of the work they've started, hanging around for an extra week or something like that just to finish two or three days' work," he said.
"That's the attitude of these volunteers."
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