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. Stacey and Ben's house begins its journey next Tuesday, with Jo and Brendan following in July.

To get a sense of each family's journey, we need to understand what happened on February 28 and March 1, 2022.

Stacey's husband Ben has a tinny, and he played a significant part in rescuing people and pets in North Lismore.

As with the majority of Lismore, the Walders and Kilburns were thinking the impact of the February 28, 2022, flood would be around the 12 metre mark. Important items were put out of harm's way before retiring to bed that night.

"I think Ben said three o'clock in the morning, he was awake and he thought he better go and get his boat and bring it around the front. By four, he woke me up and my eldest son up and said get up I need you to help me start moving stuff. It looked pretty serious. Our eldest boy is quite tall and thin, and he got up into the roof cavity, and we just passed him up all the photos that we just took off the walls, you know, wedding photos and child photos, all those memories and videotapes and put up into the ceiling thinking that hopefully it won't go to the ceiling and thankfully it didn't. It got to my neck at the back end of the house and about my shoulder at the front of the house."

It was the job of Stacey's youngest son to warn them how much the water was rising.

"It was rising very quickly, very, very quickly, it was scary, and our neighbours across the road were screaming, can you come and save us, but we couldn't leave the house until daylight because we didn't know what would be underneath the boat. It could be gas bottles, it could be tanks, or it could be cars, it could have been anything."

"When it was daylight, we hopped in the boat, my two children and a dog and life jackets, and went across the road to our neighbours, they are sort of on the corner of us, and picked their dog and cat, which was quite interesting to have two dogs in the boat.

As the family was being dropped off at the showgrounds, they saw more families in need of help, and Ben realised he would have to go back and help, navigating the rapidly flowing Wilsons River.

For Stacey and Ben, they had moved their cars earlier on Sunday, and they saved loved family memories; everything else was gone.

After a superhuman effort, the Walders were back in their home after three weeks.

"We started building straight away, thinking that we wouldn't be able to get a buyback. We didn't know what we didn't know. We stayed with some friends for a couple of weeks as they had an Airbnb and we stayed with another family out towards Bexhill, and they had us for a week as well."

"I shipped my children off to Brisbane, where they would be safe with their relatives, and we just cleaned. We would get up very early in the morning and clean a lot, then left to stay with people, and cleaned again the next day. It was just ongoing."

"When we heard there was a buyback, it was tools down and we stopped fixing everything. So, we fixed everything except for our bathroom. It was still functioning, a tub and shower, everything else was ripped out. It was tools down and we will apply for the buyback."

When Stacey and Ben received their House Buyback offer from the NRRC (Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation) around Christmas 2022.

"It was like, yes, we can get out of here," Stacey said, "We didn't know whether we would buy another house and move away. We hadn't made that decision quite yet, but we looked at lots of properties and we looked at a lot of homes, and we didn't really like what we saw. It wasn't until April or May that we were really keen to buy land and relocate our home."

When asked why Modanville was the location Stacey and Ben picked, the reply was a clear indication of Lismore's lack of land and housing supply.

"Because that was the only available land that you could go to that was up high," Stacey laughs.

In terms of their journey, now over two years, it has been a battle.

"It's exhausting, and it has been a battle, you know, between solicitors and the RA. But three heads are better than one, and we joined the Relocation Group. I was like, oh my goodness, there are so many steps that we had already done on our own. It was really good to join these guys, so we're all together."

The Relocation Group was started by Jo Kilburn, a friend and nearby resident, after relocating homes became an option for flood-affected residents. Various Facebook groups were all talking about buybacks, so Jo put out a call for those looking to relocate, and the Relocation Group was born.

At that stage, there were no real processes in place, so Jo approached Janelle Saffin, who organised a meeting that included the head of the NSWRA at the time Simon Draper. Mr Draper organised a meeting with new RA employees Jamie Simmonds, Kristie Clarke and Narelle Poole. Those meetings became monthly, which led to changes in contract details so buyback recipients could plan and move forward with their lives rather than seeing roadblocks.

For Stacey and Ben, these changes in how the NSWRA acted and responded led to the formation of the NSWRA Concierge Service, which has played a critical role in helping so many flood-affected families.

"We couldn't get a mortgage, a second mortgage. So, Jamie said to us we could settle and then move your house post-settlement. Initially, we looked into moving our house but we couldn't move our house within 24 hours and shift everything off the land within 24 hours. It was just impossible. It was never going to happen and that was in the contract. You have to have everything shifted, you have to have a clear block, you can't leave anything behind, but you have to do it within a certain time period."

"Narelle spoke to the four big banks, so we could roll over our mortgage, transfer our equity. So, with the buyback, we could transfer our equity, and our mortgage would stay the same. We wouldn't be paying out x amount of dollars because we finished our mortgage early, and then we wouldn't be paying new interest rates at 6.2%. We could stay at the low-interest rate which we had fixed before the flood."

Before the introduction of the NSWRA Concierge team, Stacey felt she was pulling hens teeth.

"It was very tricky. We saw a solicitor pretty much straight away, as soon as we got our contract and had her look over it and explain it to us because we had no idea, it was crazy. Some of the battles, you felt like you're pulling hens teeth."

"Since we joined that group, it's taken a whole weight off our shoulders because we can work together. We can talk about issues on our messenger chat, you know, this is a problem we're having, how can we resolve this and you have lots of people's ideas. And then we can always call or email Narelle or Jamie asking if they can help us. They just do, and it's just amazing."

However, there are aspects of the Resilient Home Program that even the NSWRA Concierge team cannot fix. One is when you move into the upper echelons of state government, such as lawyers, the treasury, and the bureaucracy involved.

Jo Kilburn said they are still trying to affect big changes.

"One of the things that we're trying to get waived is stamp duty. We've already paid stamp duty on our homes, but now we've got to pay stamp duty again. Stacey and I've already paid it, but for others to come, we're trying to get that through Treasury that the stamp duty will be waived, which then we'll get a refund on hopefully. That's been sitting with them right from the very beginning, we're talking nearly 12 months. Jamie's still trying to get that pushed through."

Stacey endured a fight to try and get her 10% deposit to secure their block of land in Modanville.

"We wanted 20%, so we didn't have to pay mortgage insurance. But it was really tricky to try and get just 5% from our buyback. So we had 5% through saving money, but to get that extra 15% to get to 20% was like pulling hens teeth. It's back and forth to solicitors, which was expensive because we're paying our solicitor a lot of money to to fight for us. Eventually, we got 5%, so we missed out on the 20%, but we got the 10% in the end, at the 11th hour. We nearly lost our block of land."

As if that was not stressful enough already, a real estate agent then tried to play Stacey and Jo off against each other for the block of land that Stacey and Ben were buying, not knowing they knew each other.

Stacey and Ben's house moves on Tuesday at midnight after being prepared on Monday.

"It's quite a big home. She's 104 years old, our house. We'll get it cut in half and put on two trucks, and off it will go. I can't wait."

The unknown part of the moving equation is how long it will take for the house to be liveable.

"I actually don't know that step. I'm hoping within two months," Stacey said, "I fully cross our fingers. Hopefully, we've got the roof back on and the solar on the roof. Our electricity is already on the block, town water is already connected, and the phone is already connected, so we were really lucky. We've got a driveway in, and that's already done. We have a tiny home on our block of land."

"That's another thing. You do need to find somewhere to live in the interim. Ours is with Container of Dreams. They are wonderful people. Their son used to do karate with our son, and they found out we went through the flood. My husband thought it was a scam, that someone had sent us an email with all these gift vouchers, and he's like "don't open it, it's a scam" because we had people claiming that $1000 from Centrelink at the time."

"So, we had quite a bit of gift vouchers that were given to us by Container of Dreams to help us put our house back together. And then I bumped into her when I was doing my groceries one day, and she said I've got a tiny home at the showground you can just have it until you don't need it. And when you're finished with it, we'll pass it on to someone else. She said it is the gift that just keeps on giving."

The NSWRA also offers caravans that families can live in while their home is being re-built after relocation. Stacey and Ben went through their case manager who passed them on to Social Futures who made it happen for them.

The uncertainty about the timeframe to get back into their newly moved house is because they will be doing the work themselves as Ben is a builder, and their son has his white card (needed for anyone carrying out construction work).

"Obviously, we have to get a plumber and an electrician and waterproof the bathroom. But apart from that, we can do just about everything ourselves."

When asked to summarise their journey, Stacey had tears in her eyes while listening to Jo. Both ladies said it was impossible to do. However, this explanation gives you a feeling for what the Walder's journey has been.

"Ben is a business owner, so we knew we had to stay in the area. When we were looking at places to move to live, we had to consider that our youngest son goes to Trinity. They have lost their school. My eldest son went to Richmond River, and he lost his school completely. He was in Year 12 when it flooded. It was very hard, he lost all his major works. He had friends move away. It was pretty much full-on, and it was really sad and really hard for them...... really hard for them."

"The saddest memory I have of that, and it still brings me to tears, is when we came home to our house, and it's all flood-prone with everything everywhere, there's mud everywhere, our son was unpacking his room and chucking everything out. The sad thing is that you don't have anything to give. There's no shoes, there's no spare clothes, there's no food, there's no nothing. And as a parent, you're there to provide for your children, and there's nothing you can do about it either. That was the hardest thing I had to go through for my children."

"Other than that, we haven't had time to process. It's just keep moving, just keep moving on. Don't drop the ball, just keep moving."

You can always trust a flood-affected person or family will find some positives in their story.

"Fortunately, I was lucky. Where I work wasn't affected by floods, so I still had work. My husband's job wasn't affected by flood, he still had work, apart from his business, which was affected by flood."

"Financially, we were fine, so we were lucky. We've had to rely on what the government is happy to give us, and we're really very lucky that our support group with my husband's work and my support group with my workplace, all just dipped in, and they helped us in any way they could. It could have been tubs, it could have been food, it could have been money vouchers, it was whatever. We were really, really lucky."

Let's hope luck stays with Stacey, Ben and their children next week as they begin the journey to their final destination in the same home they have loved for many years, never having to go through another flood like February 28, 2022.