From Farmer Charlies to Zambreros and Ramones Pizza, the list of Lismore businesses getting ready to reopen is growing longer. The Lismore App spoke to some of the business owners about their plans and the journey ahead to recover after the biggest flood In Lismore's recorded history.

One of the clean up team throwing out flooded goods from the Zambrero shop window.

Not giving up - Farmer Charlies

Once the flood rubbish is cleared from the streets, Farmer Charlies owner Selena Edmonds is planning to start an outdoor market.

She plans to sell bread, milk, eggs and fresh produce (big cheers all round, especially if you have been missing green vegetables).

“I’m hoping Steve Krieg might bring his coffee cart to the complex too,” she said.

The Lismore App spoke to Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg today, and Steve said he was interested in the idea and would be talking with Selena about it.

Outside Byrant Mattresses on Dawson Street.

Right now though, Selena is standing in a huge empty shell of a warehouse and is getting the shop ready to be fitted-out again.

She said getting it to that stage was only possible thanks to local sporting teams who came to the rescue.

“We’ve sponsored local sporting clubs for years and they all came to help,” Selena said.

“All the rugby boys showed up and worked with us to clean it up within the week. It was a massive job to strip the flooded shop of ruined fittings and sodden stock.”

She said she plans to refit a section of the complex and sell cooked pies, sausage rolls and bacon and eggs rolls.

“There’s going to be so many tradies in town and they will all need somewhere to eat and we’ll try to cater for that too.

“We just need to keep moving forwards.”

Brad the Butcher

Brad the butcher – located inside the Farmer Charlies complex is also planning to open again.

Like most Lismore business owners, Brad was also hard at work stripping the shop and trying to get ready to open it again.

Tobacconist

The tobacconist opposite Farmer Charlies is also planning on opening again – but he won’t be renting DVDs anymore.

Bryant Mattresses

Bryant mattresses owner Dallas Bryant said he never thought he’d be gurneying the inside of the shop roof. But like many other businesses, this has been a week of firsts.

After doing business here for 20 years and experiencing numerous floods, this time the flood water went over the top of his shop, located on the corner of Dawson Street and Ballina Road.

“A guy sent me a video of it under water – his boat went over the top,” he laughed.

He’s getting the shop ready to reopen and said once it’s lockable and all the electrics are checked, he’ll be getting stock in.

He has stock in trucks, ready to go and hopes to be open within the week.

Ramones Pizza

Dallas said the owner of Ramones Pizza shop next door will also be reopening – but that the Laundromat next to that on Ballina Road won’t be.

In fact, the owner had (luckily) closed down the shop the week before the flood and moved all the washing machines out.

Takeaway Corner

The sheer force of the torrent of flood water that coursed down Ballina Road last week ripped out shop walls, shattered glass windows, flipped cars and flattened street signs.

At the (previously) popular takeaway corner – on the corner of Ballina Road and Dawson Street - a cluster of food shops were all severely battered by the torrent.

The Lismore App visited the businesses there as they cleaned up, to find out who was planning to reopen.

Zambreros

At takeaway corner, owner of Zambreros, Matthew Nash, is planning to reopen the Mexican food franchise shop.

He said the damage was “more than he thought” when he arrived after the flood to inspect the shop building.

The glass windows of the shop had blown out and glass and mud were everywhere. The roof fittings were broken and hanging in a tangled mess of metal and wires.

Matthew, his dad Tony and a team of helpers were stripping muddy equipment and ruined bags of corn chips out of the broken shop.

“The cooking equipment is all gone and we are hoping we can soon get some more from our Brisbane supplier,” Matthew said.

“We might be able to bring some from a store we have already closed – but it’s hard because everywhere we have a shop, there has been a flood – including Chinderah.

“We didn’t have insurance and so we will reopen when we can.”

Asian Takeaway

Near Zambroros on takeaway corner, is the Asian takeaway food shop.

John, the owner lives in a house opposite the shop on Ballina Road.

For him, the flood was a double whammy – his house and his business both went under in the flood.

John said while his house was insured, his business was not.

He’s still not sure if he will be able to reopen the takeaway shop as it will cost more than $150,000 to refit the shop with the cooking equipment that was destroyed in the flood – as well as the massive repair job needed on the walls, roof and electrical.

He said he had already talked to the owner of the building, but if he is to reopen, John will need to fund the repairs himself.

“A lot of people tell me it would be good to open a business here. But now it’s terrible and lots of people here also have no home,” he said.

“I think the government needs to be more supportive and we still haven’t heard anything from them.

“We need to be open so we can keep the staff here.”

John said he also had shops in Ballina, Goonellabah and Casino as well, but Lismore was by far the worst affected by flood.

John said before the flood, he was considering moving into a bigger shop in Lismore to have more seating – and was lucky he hadn’t done it.

The Subway signs at takeaway corner were ripped off by flood water.

Lismore’s future

Conversations in our community are already beginning, about what the future will be for Lismore.

Whatever happens, the reality is that an entire population of people live here and hundreds of businesses have been closed as a result of this devastating flood event.

On social media, already there is a public call out for community consultation with our leaders at all levels of government.

Yesterday, the Lismore App reported that Tracey Randall from Randall Legal in Lismore is calling for local businesses to give her feedback on what they need to be able to reopen. Read more: Rubbish clean up moves tonnes as businesses tell PM what's needed

Tracey has been in conversation with the NSW Premier this week and she wants to help create a strong united voice for the Lismore business community.

With the Australian Prime Minister due to visit Lismore later this week, she wants to take our needs to the top.

Financing the rebuild of local businesses and retaining staff are just some of the immediate needs.

Where do we house the people displaced from the flood and who will fund this?

The Lismore App will continue to report on these issues and more - and we ask for the Lismore community to send us their ideas, comments and questions.

The Grill Shack at takeaway corner.