Adele McSweeney opened the doors of her salon on Casino Street, South Lismore yesterday, excited to welcome back old and new clients to the funky post-flood design.

“About six weeks before the flood we were thinking of renovating. We had discussed that it needed a bit of a revamp because it had been 16 years. We just never got round to it, life got in the way. It’s probably lucky that we didn’t,” Adele said.

With the help of husband Mick, daughter Kelsey, a great landlady and numerous others, Delly’s Hair Design is back bright, fresh and flood-ready.

“I used to live in South and we actually moved out of South to get out of the flood zone and we moved to Monaltrie… but the flood got us there too in the house. Now that we’ve finished the salon – and my hubby’s business got done too – it's time to concentrate on our home. It didn’t get a hell of a lot of damage but it still wrecked our kitchen and flooring. We were quite lucky. The water that went in the house was clean, I just wiped the walls down. It was still scary,” Adele explained.

Adapting to the disaster impact, like so many local business people, Adele has been operating her salon at home since early March whilst rebuilding the salon’s long-term home.

Adele with husband Mick and daughter Kelsey 

“We’ve got a flat downstairs that my daughter lived in. It was ideal to have that downstairs. I picked up a heap of new customers, they loved it out there. They wanted me to stay out there but I love the social side of it. I love coming to work. I’m a true blue Southie. And I love the Southies, we’re a unique group of people,” Adele said with a smile.

Having grown up in South Lismore, Adele said that most of her family were impacted by the flood, including her father.

“I was born in Moree but my life has been here in South Lismore. My Dad lives here in South, he lost his home in the flood. He’s now living with my sister in Caniaba. My sister and brother-in-law have a business here too, my brother lives down here as well so we were all affected by the flood, unfortunately. You brush yourself off and you carry on,” Adele said.

Adele’s entire hairdressing career has been at Delly’s, coming to the passion later in life, and she told the Lismore App there was only a brief moment when she considered not returning.

“For a split second, I thought I might not come back. A split second. It all depended on my landlady too because she didn’t have to do all this. I didn’t get a whole lot of damage – there was a hole in that wall and the benches were ripped off that wall. It ripped the whole brick back area off. I wanted to make it easier for the owner and cheaper so I said ‘I don’t need all that room’ so we put a wall across the back. We put corrugated iron and hardwood inside so we can hose it down. My husband made this bench. I tried to be practical,” Adele explained.

“I am excited to reopen. I’ve got heaps of bookings this week. I lost all my telephone system. Commander put a hold on it for six months and I rang them yesterday- I’m a bit old school, I wanted to keep the landline – they’re replacing it all free which is great,” Adele said.

The extended hairdressing community has made generous donations to support their Lismore colleagues by donating products and equipment.

“Some QLD hairdressers gave us in Lismore so much…I got new dryers, new straighteners, scissors - they’re not cheap. I lost everything but my friend walked past during the flood – I couldn’t get back into town – and the window was broken and my friend said ‘do you want me to jump in and see what I can save’ and I said, ‘save my scissors.’ That was the most expensive thing. I basically lost 95% of my stuff. I just had to go and buy new stuff. What can you do? You can’t just sit and wait for everything to come to you.”

Delly’s is yet another Southside business success that adds a positive chapter to the flood story.

Delly’s Hair Design is at 15B Casino Street South Lismore.