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Like so many in the Northern Rivers, Teresa and her family had been through floods before. The 2017 event saw the ground floor of their house submerged, but in 2022 the waters reached within a couple of feet of their upstairs ceiling. Having just renovated, they watched as the waters undid the work and washed away their furniture and other possessions.

“We’d never been flooded upstairs before. The water came up to over our heads – not that we were in the water over our heads, we were on the verandah roof – but it was up to our ankles before we got out,” she recalled.

“We were up there with myself, my daughter and a two-year-old, and the old lady from next door. She had to swim from her house to our house. There were Christmas lights on the balcony, so we took off the cord and threw it over to her and she came across here.

“Because we were renovating, we had our stepladder up here so we could get onto the verandah roof, and then we just watched all our furniture and everything float away, sitting in the rain.”

Teresa’s is a notable example of Resilient Lismore’s Repair to Return team working with the community with what they have and can do themselves.

“This is our family home. My daughter lives here with her three children aged 3, 9 and 11 with another on the way. Having only a temporary laundry and kitchen downstairs when they live upstairs was stressful,” she said.

Teresa and her family fixed their timber floors and re-sheeted the walls themselves but required Resilient Lismore’s assistance with installing the kitchen and laundry cabinets. They had the basic frame in place, and we supplied trades to install the laundry and kitchen cabinets and a plumber to fit-off. Teresa paid her own electrician to install the laundry switches and kitchen appliances.

“We had just finished renovating the laundry before the flood. We had all the cabinetry, and it went in the flood – $10,000 worth of Ikea. But now we’ve got it, which is great. We did get a good insurance pay-out, but the bank made us pay off the mortgage. There was money left over to fix up the house but then it just ran out. So, getting this finished was a huge bonus,” she said.

“It’s heaps better than before the flood, actually. We put FC (fibre cement) sheeting on the walls, re-did the ceiling, did the walls, did all the rustic stuff. Every inch of it was re-done or re-painted at least.

“Now we can cook. Lorraine (Teresa’s daughter) is a baker, so she cooks things for the kids’ lunchboxes. It’s made a huge difference, because downstairs was just a little semi-kitchen.”

The work done has increased their buyback value by about six percent. Once they get some land as part of the Resilient Lands program, they will look to relocate the house. Teresa has done that before with another house and looks forward to moving their family home out of the flood zone.

If you need help with repairs, please reach out to our Repair to Return team.

We Acknowledge

That we are living and working together to recover from this climate disaster on Bundjalung Country, and pay our deepest respects to Elders past and present.