The Lismore App published our first story about the brand new gym, Stepz Fitness, in Centro on the 22nd of August 2020.

We pictured owner Sam Waller with the then, new manager local girl Alyce Benson. The gym had all brand near gear and looked a million dollars.

Alyce decided to bite the small business bullet and buy Stepz Fitness from Sam with the sale going through on Friday the 18th of February, 10 days before Lismore's record-breaking flood.

Alyce was like many business owners on the Saturday and Sunday before the full impact was felt, she was busy (with the help of family and friends) moving equipment, boards, TVs etc up to the second floor of Centro. After all, no flood had ever reached the second floor. Alyce and five others decided to stay in Centro to be there when the waters receded enough to begin the cleanup. At that stage, the flood was not expected to reach 11 metres.

This is Alyce's account of what happened during the Flood of 2022:

On Sat 26^th Feb we knew there was lots of rain coming over the next couple of days and so we decided to put a call out to our gym members to help us move all the gym equipment upstairs to the 2^nd floor of the shopping centre. We started moving everything at 8.30pm and finished around 12.30am Sunday morning. 

We went home for a few hours’ sleep to only be back there again by 7am to continue moving more things plus taping power points to removing our timber Stepz signage off the walls, removing shelving and moving items higher up.

We also helped the café next door for several hours move all their things upstairs. 

It was a very full-on day and we were very anxious for what was going to happen.

My mum, husband and I decided that day we wanted to stay at Lismore Central overnight so we could chase the floodwaters out and start washing all the walls and mud of everything as the water receded. 

So, I raced home to collect some basic camping gear, spare clothes, food and water etc in case we were stranded there for a couple days, we wanted to be prepared for that. 

There were 6 of us staying the night at the Shopping Centre and through the night my husband and the Centre Manager measured the height of the 2^nd floor which was 13.45m, just so we knew everything was going to be ok upstairs. 

As the night went on, we were constantly checking for updates, we had zero sleep all night. At first, it was going to be a moderate to major flood with possible river heights of 9.5-10.6m, then a couple of hours later it changed to major flooding of around 11.5m and every hour or two it kept changing and getting higher and higher.

Late evening it then went from 12.5-13.5m. Just before 2am we checked the river height prediction again and it was now saying 14-15m. At that point, we knew we would be in trouble and that everyone’s things on the 2^nd floor would be flooded and destroyed. We felt completely gutted and I felt so sick in the stomach as we had only bought the gym 10 days before it flooded and knowing that it was all going to be destroyed was gut-wrenching. I remember going over to my husband and bawling my eyes out.

All through the night we could see the SES driving around and asking people to evacuate, there were bright lights and sirens going most of the night.

At 2.34am we heard the siren go for the topping of the levee bank. We raced back down to the gym to take the 4 TVs off the wall and speakers from the roof. We also tried taking the security cameras off the roof but at 4.20am the floodwaters came gushing through the building and we had to retreat to the 2^nd floor. The water rose so fast that within 5-10 minutes it was 1m deep and the flow rate was absolutely terrifying. It was like watching a tsunami, we could hear walls/windows smashing and seeing lots of debris float through.

Within one and half hours the waters had reached the 2^nd floor and we had to climb onto the roof of Lismore Central.

We had food, water, blankets and a chair with us. We had to climb up two high ladders through a manhole to get onto the roof. At the top of Lismore Central there is a dome-like feature in which we sheltered under so we wouldn’t be soaking wet. We were up there for about 4 hours before my mum spotted a boat coming down Carrington Street. My husband ran to the end of the building to get their attention and it happened to be a friend of ours who was out rescuing people. 

He waited at the end of the building for us, but first, we had to leave all our things behind, and climb back down the two ladders onto the 2^nd floor and jump into 1m of water in the dark and walk out through the back storeroom onto the loading dock area. The water was freezing cold and smelt so bad. 

The boat took us 3 ladies first and came back to rescue the other 3 men along with people from the motel across the road.

One of my best friends allowed us to stay at her place for a couple days until we could get home.

On Wednesday morning around 10.30am we drove down to Trinity school and parked the car as the town was still flooded. We walked through some water around knee to thigh height to get back to the gym to see what destruction we were facing.

We could have never imagined the level of destruction the flood had caused the town and all the shops were smashed up and falling apart. I was completely shaken and was in total shock at what we were seeing.

As we finally got to the gym, I was emotionally exhausted, and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The external walls had been completely blown out and fallen over. The amount of force that must have hit that part of the building to cause that much destruction would have been massive. 

We spent the next 4 days clearing all the equipment out and taking it home to clean and salvage. This was a mammoth task but we luckily had lots of wonderful helpers. It took 11 long days to clean everything that we could, and we managed to salvage a lot of our things. 

We are definitely wanting to rebuild Stepz Fitness Lismore. It is just a matter of getting enough financial assistance to allow us to come back.

The old owner and Franchisor Sam Waller and another Stepz Franchisee Dan Hotchkins are doing a massive ride from Sydney to Lismore (730km) on the 8^th April to raise funds for us to rebuild.

They are hoping to do this ride in under 7 days. Sam has never ridden a road bike before, so I know it’s going to be a challenge but they are both determined to do it and to help us. Sam has created a “Go Fund” me page on the Stepz Lismore Facebook page for anyone able to help out.

I am very grateful for all the help we’ve had over the past few weeks and the community spirit around Lismore has been amazing. Lismore is our home and I know it’s going to take many years to come back from this, but I know everyone will pull together to make it happen. 

Let's bring Lismore back to life!!!