Friday, February 7, 2025

Resilient Lismore annual report released

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Executive summary

The floods that devastated Lismore and the Northern Rivers in late February 2022 may be the worst natural disaster in recorded Australian history.

Across the region, more than 20,000 homes affected with the damage cost estimated at $5.4 billion. People across the Northern Rivers lost their houses, their possessions, their memories, their businesses, and their sense of safety and security.

Schools were closed, some permanently. Tragically, five people died. The damage done to lives, homes, businesses is far reaching and two and a half years later, the region is still deep in on-going recovery.

Resilient Lismore emerged out of the disaster to assist the many people who were affected by the floods. The immediate focus was to establish ‘Repair to Return’ – its initial triage response directly following the flood, which sought to ensure that residents were safe, secure and warm.

With the support of The Winsome, the Diocese of Lismore, Joel Jensen Constructions, the Reece Foundation and many more trades and donors, Resilient Lismore extended the scope of its work to the restoration of kitchens, bathrooms, and essential plumbing to flood-affected houses.

In March 2023, Janelle Saffin MP for Lismore secured $5 million from the Minns Labor government, which allowed Resilient Lismore to further extend its ‘Repair to Return’ program to more people in need by engaging more local contractors and tradespeople. So far, the program has enabled the repair of 195 properties.

The funding also enabled the development of robust systems and procedures to manage the complexities of multiple concurrent jobs. Many households still need assistance, and the program fills a significant recovery gap by providing housing repair to those who are ineligible for the NSW Reconstruction Authority’s ‘Resilient Homes’ program.

Resilient Lismore delivered nearly $4.5 million worth of volunteer aid, including more than 15,800 volunteer deployments. It has completed more than 4000 jobs, ranging from cleaning up to fixing stairs and windows to rebuilding bathrooms.

It has delivered around 657 significant property repairs, assessed more than 1600 sites, and conducted more than 4000 well-being home visits, appointments, or phone calls.

Resilient Lismore has made a significant difference in the lives of many people who have been affected by the disaster. There have been more than 35,000 walk-ins at the Resilient Lismore Community Hub, with around 1400 general referrals made to other services.

More than $900,000 in brokerage support has been distributed into the community, including 1550 instances delivered via vouchers, Givit applications or other brokerage.

The work extends beyond Lismore to the heavily impacted downstream communities of Coraki, Woodburn, Wardell, Broadwater, Bungawalbin and reaches further afield to Casino, Kyogle, Chinderah, and Ballina.

Although the ‘Repair to Return’ program is perceived as its core work, Resilient Lismore’s diverse range of activities includes building a strong community service sector to mitigate the impacts of disasters in disadvantaged communities, and to support long-term recovery, resilience and preparedness to future natural hazards.

Training has been conducted for more than 462 local and visiting volunteers. More than 1500 community members have attended 11 events and 180 have participated in over 20 skills workshops.

Since 2023, workshops with approximately 110 participants have been carried out in partnership with local organisations and providers across a variety of locations to enhance accessibility across communities.

Resilient Lismore is now a vital part of the Northern Rivers recovery and preparedness ecosystem, playing a key role in coordinating and training other community organisations, with the goal of building a strong network of groups who learn from their experiences and effectively prepare for the next disaster.

To this end, Resilient Lismore commenced its pilot project ‘Disaster Ready Together’. The organisation secured funding for it through the NSW Council of Social Services (NCOSS). The ‘Disaster Ready Together’ project has been successfully refunded through the Federal Government’s Disaster Ready Fund and will be delivered in 2025–2027.

Resilient Lismore is committed to advocacy and has met with the Premier, the Minister for Emergency Services, Minister for Planning, Minister for the North Coast, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, the Federal Minister for Emergency Management, the CEO of the National Emergency Management Agency, and the CEO and Executive of the Reconstruction Authority.

Resilient Lismore’s Executive Director, Elly Bird, has also presented at numerous disaster sector conferences and gatherings around the country which has given Resilient Lismore national recognition as an exemplar of community-led disaster recovery within the growing disaster resilience sector.

Of the 2,000 or so women working in emergency situations in Australia and New Zealand, Elly Bird was recognised in October 2024 by the Australasian Women in Emergencies network, who awarded her for outstanding leadership and for building community resilience.

Results from multiple evaluations of Resilient Lismore’s work have demonstrated the breadth of the organisation’s impact. Resilient Lismore is widely recognised as a key pillar of the community, trusted for its support, integrity, and inclusive advocacy.

It is an outstanding example of the power and strength of communities that gather in a coordinated effort, and demonstrates the critical importance in disaster recovery of initiatives that are both connected to, and part of, the community.

The organisation is acutely aware that a significant need still exists, particularly for those flood-affected residents who, for various reasons, are not eligible for existing Government support and are thus identified as those who are ‘falling through the cracks.’

With many other programs finishing in 2025, Resilient Lismore is working hard to secure further funding to continue to support recovering households.

More detail about Resilient Lismore’s achievements are available in their annual report: https://resilientlismore.org. au/publications/annual-report-2024.

Nimbin GoodTimes January 2025

This article appeared in  The Nimbin GoodTimes, January 2025.


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