As mentioned yesterday, two North Lismore families are about to embark on their final Lismore big flood chapter. As you can imagine, it has been a journey like no other over nearly two and a half years. A journey where neither could afford to stop because they might crumble, and that was not an option, especially when you have children involved.

"Just keep moving" was the phrase from both Jo and Stacey.

Jo and Brendan Kilburn and Stacey and Ben Walder live a street away from each other in North Lismore. They will continue their friendship at about the same distance when both families relocate their homes to Modanville in the coming two months.

Yesterday, we said that Stacey and Ben's house begins its journey next Tuesday. Jo and Brendan will send their house 13km north in July.

This is Jo and Brendan's story from February 28, 2022.

Jo and Husband Brendan were rescued by Ben Walder (Stacey's husband) at about 10:30 Monday morning on February 28, 2022.

"I think we were one of the last ones in the street that were rescued because there were people more vulnerable than us and Ben knew we were okay. It was probably chest height on me when we got rescued."

"We had everything moved up, preparing for the 2017 flood like everybody, to the back verandah. My husband and I were actually fist-bumping each other on Sunday night going this is the most organised we've ever been in a flood. We have been there for 20 years.

"Then, as the night sort of went on, we're thinking oh, shit, this is not looking great. It didn't actually hit our area until, I think, about three o'clock, and then between three o'clock and six o'clock was when the water just went voomp, really, really quickly on our side.

"At three o'clock in the morning, it was still only around my husband's knees downstairs, and we're just over three meters off the ground. So between 3am and about 6am, the water started coming through the floorboards. In those three hours, it went up about two and a half to three meters. It was really quick."

"That's when we sort of started panicking, when it started going through the floorboards, and we were thinking, oh, my God. It was a matter of then racing around taking photos down and trying to put them on our highest cupboards. We don't have a lot of high cupboards even though we've got high ceilings. Our first priority was getting photos off the walls."

Jo's poor filing habits saw other important documents saved as they were stored on top of cupboards that kept them dry. The rest of their household items were gone.

Initially, Jo didn't think she would be offered a House Buyback through the Resilient Homes Program.

"Just because there's only a limited amount of money," Jo said, "It wasn't just something that we thought about. We were thankfully insured, and our insurance company was amazing. So, we were really lucky with that."

"My parents live in Goonellabah, so we were able to go and live with them while we repaired our house. The insurance company just paid us out. So we fixed the house ourselves within seven months. We were back in in September 2022, but only because my husband's a builder. So, we were fortunate that we had somewhere safe for the four of us to stay, and we had the insurance, so we weren't expecting to be offered a buyback."

The offer for a House Buyback came through for Jo and Brendan in about May 2023.

"We were one of the last ones in our street. All of our neighbours had been offered well before us. We've got two teenage boys, and we needed to show them that we've got to get back on our feet, so we just got in and did what we had to do to repair the house. Make it liveable again."

"When we were offered the buyback, I was like, okay, we've spent all this money and time fixing our house, then let's look for a block of land and relocate, so take our house with us."

When the buyback offer came through, it was not a difficult decision to take the initiative and move out of the floodplain as soon as possible.

"Our parents were quite concerned about us being stuck in another flood. They had been trying to get us to look at options to move anyway. It wasn't financially viable for us to do that, but with the help of the buyback, it was like, okay, we can do this."

When asked why Modanville was going to be the family's new location, the reply was a clear indication of Lismore's lack of land and housing supply.

"We originally put a deposit on a block of land at Bexhill, in the development behind the school there. But when the DA was approved, the developer pulled the contracts on the properties, so that fell through. In the end, Modanville was really the only other place that had eligible blocks at that point in time for us to buy."

As was mentioned yesterday, Jo was the instigator of the Relocation Group. A group of about twelve people looking to move their homes out of the floodplain. The Relocation Group soon had the ear of Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin and key players for the NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSWRA) Jammie Simmonds, Narelle Poole and Kristie Clarke.

"It was great to know that we were being heard and people were wanting to help us through this process because no one had done it before. This was just letting everybody know, higher up within the corporation and Janelle, that this isn't an easy process and the issues that we were facing about the contracts that were coming through from the NRRC saying that you had to move out of your home before you got the buyback. This is not realistically possible because you need the money from the buyback to be able to purchase land and relocate the home because, at that point in time, the banks weren't lending money and you weren't able to transfer your loan."

One of the key appointments by the NSWRA was to set up a Concierge Service to help people understand the House Buyback process and complicated contracts and to make practical changes when needed as well as help them navigate unforeseen challenges.

"As a result of our meetings, Narelle has been working with the banks. With us, we were fortunate that my in-laws gave us some money for the deposit, and we were financially able to get another loan to be able to purchase a block of land, but others aren't in that situation. So, Narelle met with banks and organised the loan portability, so on the settlement day of the buyback contracts they could settle on a block of land simultaneously. Because initially the banks are saying no, that couldn't happen."

"So, as a result of our meetings, that process has come about. Also the license to occupy was something that our group got happening. The license to occupy now allows us to receive our buyback money, once we signed the contract and the NSWRA take over the ownership of the block of land, but we're still allowed to live in the house, but we've got our money to be able to do stuff. That was as a result of our meetings with our group."

"All of these little hurdles that we've come up against, we meet with Jamie, Narelle and Kristie and they go out and try and fix the problems."

(The Kilburn's new block of land at Modanville, complete with an old house that will form part of a larger family home when finished)

When is it likely that Jo, Brendan and the children will make the move to Modanville?

"We were originally two weeks after Ben and Stacy. But then we were bumped out to the 22nd of July, and then last week, they told us we might be brought forward to the eighth of July. So, we have no idea. But with us, we'll go back home and live with my parents in Goonellabah while the house is being moved.

"That was another thing that we got through with the NSWRA, a wide load permit.

So, they've now got approval to move homes up to nine metres if the route will accommodate nine-metre loads. Our house being only 8.6 meters, we hopefully won't have to cut it. Which will mean a much quicker process for us to be able to be living in there.

(The Kilburn home to move to Modanville in July)

"It will only be a matter of getting the stumps done, connecting the services and a couple of little repairs because they have to pull our fireplace out between the kitchen and lounge room, so we will have to repair that. But, it should be a much quicker process if they don't have to cut it.

Jo tried to summarise her journey over the last two and bit years.

"To be honest, it's being shit. With our children being at Trinity, they not only lost their home, they lost their school environment. They were both in swim clubs, so they lost their swim community on top of everything else. It's been hard. I haven't had time to really stop and process yet in two and a half years because it's just been so full on. I can honestly tell you I haven't had a minute to sit down and fall apart, which I'm sure will be coming.

"It's just been go, go, go, go constantly. We were initially fixing the house, getting it liveable again, and then, processing what we lost. Sometimes I would go to get something only to realise I don't have that anymore. We've become minimalists because there's only so much that you can go back and replace financially, and it's like, well, you had that, but I don't really need it anymore, so I'm not going to go and buy that.

"A girlfriend wanted me to bring my hairdryer for something the other day and I said I don't have one. She's like, what!, oh, yeah, of course. You've got curly hair, you probably don't need one. I said yeah, well, I've never used it, so I haven't bought another one.

Jo is a half-full personality, a trait that has helped her during this trying ordeal.

"We're grateful that we're insured. We're grateful that we had my parents to go and live with giving a safe place for our children while our home was fixed. We're grateful that my husband is a carpenter and knows tradesmen that were there when we needed them. We're grateful that we've been offered this opportunity with a buyback to be able to relocate where many others haven't. That comes with a level of guilt as well.

"One of my aunts was asking me yesterday about how we're going with the block, and I was showing her some photos and stuff. She said, I haven't seen anything on Facebook, and I said we deliberately haven't been sharing anything because we've got so many of our friends who haven't been offered the opportunity that we've been offered, so we don't want to be putting that out there. It's been really hard on so many levels."

Jo and Brendan and Stacy and Ben are the epitome of resilient. It's a word that doesn't sit well with Jo, but it is hard to not think of them in that way.

The Cambridge dictionary says resilient is "able to be happy, successful, etc. again after something difficult or bad has happened." Maybe that's the point Jo makes; the move is not yet complete, so there is more work and more determination needed to continue until that point in time comes where the Kilburns can be happy, thinking of February 28, 2022, as a memory.