Accommodation has been a problem in the CBD of Lismore since February 28 2022.

While some motels were reopened relatively quickly, the rooms were taken up by tradies and other workers rebuilding our city. Others like The Gateway on Ballina Road are only being worked on now due to the massive losses suffered last year.

With events returning to our city like Gemfest, the Lantern Parade, the Lismore Show and the Master's Games all before September, there is a call for as much tourism accommodation to be available.

The Fair Dinkum Motel, formerly the Dawson Street Motor Inn, is another venue with a massive amount of work ahead but slowly the new leasees are rebuilding the business to offer more accommodation options that will inject money into our local economy.

David and Michelle Reece are the people who have taken over the lease at the new Fair Dinkum Motel on Dawson Street, near the flooded Trinity Catholic College and opposite the PCYC.

(David Reece at the new reception area of the Fair Dinkum Motel)

The husband and wife couple have been running a motel in Grafton, the Grafton Lodge Motel, for the same owners and have now taken on the challenge of rebuilding and running Lismore for the next five years.

"After the flood, we organised a meeting here to see if me and my wife were interested," David told the Lismore App,

"We met them in May last year and had a look around and it was a mess, oh my goodness it was a mess. The owners are nearly 80 and I felt sorry for them struggling to clean the place up so I thought you guys go and do what you do and we'll do what we do."

"I said to them, go and enjoy the rest of your lives and we'll come in here and take over. Michelle and I had a discussion and we thought it would be a good thing for not just us and the owners but the community.

David is a building contractor who had to see out an existing contract in Grafton before he could come to Lismore and begin the arduous task of cleaning, stripping and rebuilding 21 motel rooms.

Our community benefits in a couple of ways.

Firstly, we gain two new residents as David and Michelle will live in Lismore once they find and train people to manage the Grafton Lodge Motel. Michelle will be the manager of the Fair Dinkum Motel.

Then there are the Lismore business community benefits as David and Michelle are funding the rebuild themselves with no insurance money and no government money. David mentioned that figure is over $100,000 with most going to local businesses.

(The pool is operational once again. When David first arrived there were four fish living in the pool!)

"We've got a local painter, but he doesn't want to be named, he is happy to just stay under the radar," David said.

"We've had the solar guys here from Nickel Energy, we've had Frigidaire the air conditioner guys come in and service all the air conditioning, we'll use Bains Laundry in Goonellabah, Anderson's Carpets and our paint is coming from Tony Durheim at Lismore Paint Centre around the corner. So, locals are benefiting as we source our products locally."

"All of the old housekeeping staff are coming back apart from one person who is quite happy in her new job. We're going to look after these people. A lot of businesses really cut the money back but we want to really look after our people, we want to appreciate them and give them the right money."

When I put to David that some people are going to say he is crazy for putting in over six figures into a large flood-affected property in the Lismore CBD, David replied, "We've sat down with our financial people and they actually warned us of the risk as it doesn't look good for the first two years for us because of what we're inputting. But you know, we'll start making a profit in the third year probably after we pay ourselves off."

Given that fact, David and Michelle need to open rooms as quickly as they start paying rent in August.

Currently, there is only 1 family room complete. As you can see from the photos, the rooms will be modern and comfortable.

The other rooms are in various states of repair. Some have been painted, some are waiting to be tiled and some have new carpet laid and awaiting cabinetry to be built while others on the opposite side are still being pressure cleaned.

David hopes to have 10 rooms completed by May 20 as we head into the Gemfest weekend with the medium-term goal of all rooms being rented by August.

"That's the goal. We might not make it but that's alright," David laughs, "We're just doing what we can as we can."

With an attitude like that, David and Michelle will fit in beautifully into the Lismore community.

When the Fair Dinkum Motel is complete it will have 5 Family Rooms, 8 Queen Rooms and 8 Queen + Single Rooms. You can call David on (02) 6602 9660.