Nearly five months after the February mega-flood, Lismore City Bowling Club is just one of the local venues that’s one step closer to reopening for community events, thanks to the help of volunteers in restoring the flooded venue.

According to Elly Bird from Resilient Lismore, the need for volunteers to help rebuild is still as strong as ever.

The job of coordinating the helping hands of Lismore has been an ongoing task for the team at Resilient Lismore. Until now, they were coordinating a team of Norco workers who were paid by the company to help out.

“But this week they finish up and our community work will slow down, so we are putting a call out to community to volunteer with us,” Elly said.

“We want to build small teams of people who can work together once a week.

“There’s so much to do in this community - pulling out walls and putting up walls, helping with cleaning and painting.

“We prioritise helping people who don’t have their own networks or enough money to pay tradies and are living in their homes regardless.”

Volunteers arrive to rebuild the Bowlo

Elly said volunteers have arrived in Lismore from all around Australia, and they all agree it’s one of the most rewarding things they have done to make a difference in people’s lives.

One volunteer couple from Sydney, Dot and Steve, brought their skills to Lismore to help out. While Dot helped out with admin in the Resilient Lismore support hub, Steve helped paint homes and businesses.

Lismore City Bowling Club licencees Sharon and Mark Pepper said the couple were instrumental in getting the club ready to reopen and can’t thank them enough.

When Steve was in Lismore, he said "I use two words to describe what I’ve witnessed in Lismore: ‘Confronting' and 'overwhelming’. On the first morning I was here I broke down; it's a big, big thing.

"But I tell people it's one of the most gratifying things I've ever done. You have people cry when you turn up to help them.

"When the flood hit, we all donated our $100 or $200 and it felt good. But you don't know until you come up here and live it, see it. And that's been a big thing for us. Volunteering has been an amazing experience and one I'll never forget.

"It’s a holiday for us as well. All the different people we've met and the stories I've heard, meeting the other volunteers who have turned up help -- it's a very interesting range of people.

"I encourage people to think beyond a monetary donation. People need on-the-ground help. I want to tell people – don’t forget that Lismore is still here and it's still trying to survive and people are still living on the streets."

Bowlo reopening date

Sharon hopes to see work on the club continue to progress enough so they can open the inside club area by mid-September.

“I pressure cleaned the toilets out and they have been checked by plumbers and painted,” Sharon said.

“Now we want to get the bar and inside club area ready and painted to reopen - and leave the restoration of the kitchen until later. We’d like to reopen for functions and can have food trucks out front in the meantime.

Flood proof

 “We are trying to flood proof ourselves with a steel bar rather than a timber bar – and replace the bottom of the club with iron rather than timber – then we can screw things on and off.

“We also want to avoid rolls of carpet and source carpet squares instead. Our members are elderly and they can’t come in and roll up carpet if it floods.

“The RSL is helping us with a beer system and donating furniture.

“It’s amazing the help we are getting. This is a great little club and people love it – it’s not a giant place and we have limited finances to get up and going again. But we have the electricity back on and the cool room going.

“We are open now on Saturdays from 12 - 5pm for bowls and serve $5 beers and wines.”

Volunteer to help or donate now

If you would like to help rebuild the Lismore City Bowlo or help out as a volunteer in any way to support people in the community, you can register with Resilient Lismore.

Elly said even if you can’t volunteer, donations of anything that meets the ‘safe, secure and warm’ criteria are always welcome. Things like blankets, hot water bottles and cleaning products like vinegar and sugar soap are in high demand.

Any donations of money will go toward the ‘Two room project’ where rooms are created inside people’s gutted homes to give them a warm space in winter.

Elly said Resilient Lismore will be here at least until winter next year.

“We can see the scale of the need in the community beyond recovery,” she said. “We have a big role to play n planning for future events in this community led recovery.”

You can find out more about Resilient Lismore at http://www.floodhelpnr.com.au or drop in to the hub at 117 Magellan Street, opposite the Lismore Library.