There are three elements to the Resilient Homes Program: house buybacks, house raisings and house retrofitting.

In our regular chat with CEO of Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation David Witherdin, we touched on how the corporation will handle retrofitting about 2000 homes in Lismore and the Northern Rivers.

Mr Witherdin relayed his recent Brisbane visit with some positive experiences.

"Right since we've been set up, we've built a strong relationship with Queensland Reconstruction Authority. They've certainly got the benefit of being some 12 years ahead of us, that was set up on the back of some major disasters up there in 2011.

"In this space, they launched their Resilient Homes Fund back in May 2022. So, they've got about a five and a half months headstart of us and there's really good learnings that we've been able to share."

"We took the opportunity to get out and inspect a number of houses that have been subject to retrofitting and flood hardening. We were with James Davidson, the architect from JDA Architects, he's the one who set up all the resilient refitting design standards for QRA. He's done extensive work with Brisbane City Council, and we're working with him in terms of our own standards for the program."

"So, we went out and inspected a number of houses that have been retrofitted prior to the most recent floods. We had a builder who has retrofitted more than 100 properties as well and we met firsthand with a number of homeowners who lived through this flood."

"One lady who lives in Auchenflower had her house raised previously, it was retrofitted about three years ago. She had about half a metre of water through the house in this most recent flood, through the top story of the house and this is a house that would have been raised probably about three metres off the ground, so a very similar experience to a number of people here."

"What was really, really pleasing was the fact that she was back in that house three days later. She was able to raise most of her furniture and important belongings and then certainly still an enormous and challenging to clean up in terms of the mud and the stench and the whole lot but what I was amazed by was the fact that her kitchen is still in place that went through the flood and the same paint is still on the walls, they've just been cleaned."

"Some of her neighbours didn't have the benefit of retrofitting and she's one of the few people in that street who's back home a year later so that's the difference."

"We spent quite a bit of time talking to her. She'd been through a number of floods and absolutely loves where she lives. It's got a beautiful aspect, a beautiful house and I can see why she wants to stay there. Although you get a depth of water, it's not a high velocity of water so that does reduce that hazard profile."

"She accepts that she's going to have flood cycles there but, I think what it can do is give some confidence to communities around here that for many people, it will be a really good option. It's not going to stop you from getting flooded again but when you do, you'll be able to bounce back much quicker."

We know that time is an issue for a lot of people, especially those living in suboptimal conditions, the path forward can never be fast enough. However, it does sound like the NRRC is making every effort to research and learn to make sure they get the right results.