At the Quad last Sunday, the drizzle of rain that came to Lismore’s town meeting was a ghostly reminder of the flooding deluge that destroyed the city only two weeks before.

As meeting organiser Cassie Can addressed an assembled crowd of over 100 people, noisy dozers continued to remove sodden piles of flood waste from nearby Lismore Library.

Hands were raised, concerns were voiced and questions were asked.

Community voices spoke of government buy backs of flood prone land, of the need to listen to Indigenous and farmer knowledge and the immediate concern of how to house thousands of displaced homeless. Ideas of how to help business, mental and physical health, weather warning systems and drawing on global expertise.

Despite their differences, the assembled were united in their concern for their town, businesses and community. They clapped, and expressed their opinions in a safe forum,

Then at the end of the meeting, people wrote their ideas for how to rebuild Lismore on butcher’s paper, hanging on the walls of the Lismore Regional Gallery.

The beginning

It was just the beginning. Now the real work begins.

Now, Cassie calls for the whole community get involved in shaping the future of Lismore – to make sure the community is heard by those who have the power to make decisions.

The ideas – and what’s next

With the help of others, Cassie said she was in the process of consolidating the ideas that were listed on the butchers paper.

Then she hopes to see another general town meeting take place, followed by a series of focus groups consisting of those who want to get involved in any of the theme areas listed at the meeting.

‘Overwhelming’

Cassie said the response of the community at the first meeting since the flood was “overwhelming”.

“It’s great to see the community pulling together,” she said. “There was a buzz afterwards in the discussion groups, with everyone thinking forwards in a healthy way.”

Focus group call out

Cassie is calling for anyone who wants to get involved in the ongoing process of change and join focus groups - or lead them.

“We will look at the big picture then break it down into the steps needed to make it happen,” she said.

“We can set up a committee to compile the resulting ideas and put them forward to Council. We need government to listen to what we want and need.

Opinion poll and GetUp

“I’d also like to get a public opinion poll happening and am looking for people who want to help gather the ideas of the community for the poll.”

She also said national organisation GetUp had contacted her and she is meeting with organisers this week with them this week to see how they can help get the Lismore community back on its feet.

Creative hub

“I’ve set up my passion to lead a small business and creative focus group so we can bring art, theatre, craft, entertainment, movies and markets back into parts of town,” Cassie said.

“I really want to see the Quad become a hub where the community can gather and I’m talking to Council’s Quad placemaking officer and the director of the Lismore Regional Gallery about how we can do this.

“Lismore has a theme of ‘come to the heart’ so it’s important to bring people back to the heart and get Council on board.”

Housing

Cassie said that Lismore MP Janelle Saffin is pushing the housing agenda with the State Government.

“Housing is already in a crisis and we need to push it further, so contact Janelle with your ideas so she can collect info about what people want as housing solutions.”

How to get involved

To get involved, you can email Cassie on [email protected] or visit the Lismore Community Facebook page and message her there.

You can contact Janelle saffin’s office on (02) 6621 3624 or email [email protected]

Cassie listed some of the ideas that were raised at the meeting:

Building construction materials:

Bushfire areas have very strong building material requirements.

Are there flood standards for retailers and residents that will reduce the amount of waste and damage after a flood?

A walk around town seeing the amount of plasterboard and MDF in the waste is a good example of inappropriate building materials. Looking at some buildings using flood proof cladding shows many appear untouched.

Regular council clean ups:

Bushfire areas (and most other council areas) allow residents to organise a certain number of kerbside pickups.

This encourages people to routinely remove any items that may be accumulating on their property. It also allows for a chance to salvage and recycle these items.

The current Lismore system of having to drive to the tip and the 'lottery' system of vouchers also excludes the most vulnerable who may not have access to a vehicle to transport or the funds to dispose.

Regular cleanups improve safety in the event of flood, reduces the cost and time of clean up and reduces the environmental impact of flood.

BOM forecast:

We saw a big issue with people being trapped is that the BOM predictions for this flood were way off. It was close to midnight when they predicted the levee could top.

This led to people taking risks and staying where they would not have if they had a more accurate figure before going to bed.

Can we identify what went wrong with the modelling. Can this error be addressed with any future modelling?

Evacuation centre opening:

We saw that evacuation centres were not opened until late. If these were opened earlier, more people would have left their homes as they would have had somewhere to go.

Shuttle service:

Many people were posting on social media that they had no way to get to the evacuation centres in Goonellabah.

Introduction of a shuttle service from higher ground would have allowed the more vulnerable in the community without access to a car to be able to access the evac centres

Road maintenance:

A look around town shows that well maintained / constructed roads have much less damage than the ones we know were littered with potholes and missing curb/guttering. Ensuring roads in the area are maintained will ensure recovery is faster and evacuation is safer.

Drain maintenance:

Even homes outside of the flood area have suffered complete loss.

For example one home 100m above flood level in Lismore Heights had water from a blocked council drain come over the road edge and flood the home.

Ensuring drainage is maintained will help reduce the damage bill and recovery time to town.

It is not just rising river water that causes damage.