Harper Dalton has not slept well in the six months since his South Lismore home flooded.
“You go to bed every night wondering if next month or next week could I have to do it all over again,” he said.
Dalton lost all his belongings in February, although the old hardwood home he bought in 2020 is still standing.
He’s one of many Lismore residents who were eagerly awaiting news of potential flood buy backs in the release of the NSW flood inquiry report on Wednesday, only to be disappointed by a lack of detail.
In Lismore to hand down the government’s long-awaited response, the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said there would be a “targeted” deal for flood-affected areas, with expressions of interest to open by the end of the month.
He promised to do “everything I can to have that scheme finalised as quickly as possible”, but could not give any details on who would be included.
“I appreciate that will provide some uncertainty for people,” Perrottet said.
He said an “all encompassing” plan – recommended by the inquiry – would include raising homes, moving homes and buying back properties at pre-flood values, but didn’t set a date for when the deals would begin.
The deputy premier, Paul Toole, said there would “definitely be an answer before Christmas”.
But with months of further La Niña-driven rain forecast, residents like Dalton want answers now.
“We need urgent action around the relocation,” he said.
“I don’t know if I’m included. La Niña has just been announced again. I don’t know if it’s going to flood next month.”
Residents who want to stay also felt let down as they struggle to work out what the future of their communities will look like.
Dee Mould and Naomi Shine have been slowly rebuilding parts of their central Lismore home, while in temporary housing, after losing all of its contents and internal structures in February.
They have also organised for other homes to made habitable while owners waited for the clarity they believed they would get when the flood report was handed down.
“A lot of people are waiting on a government response while living in less than satisfactory conditions,” Mould said.
“There’s a lot of people can’t move back into their houses until they get a decision from the government as to what the government’s going to do. Hearing today that that decision is probably not going to be until a year after the floods, that’s an incredibly slow response.
“I’ve been disappointed in the government response from day one, from the point where the community was on the water rescuing people.”
But Shine said Wednesday’s announcement offered a small amount of hope.
“It would be great if we knew the detail now and people could be more able to plan for the future,” she said.
“I’d just love to see it enacted and be able to get some action for people.”
She said the wet weather forecast this week had been a “dreadful” blow and that many people were struggling to absorb the information in their ongoing stress.
“It could all happen again. Living in the flood zone means you’ve got so much to think about,” she said.
Lismore city councillor Elly Bird was disappointed the government did not provide certainty for the most “obvious” areas of the region, at the very least.
“People have been waiting six months for information. Why not start there?” she said.
“Let people have some certainly.
“There is an impact on mental health. It’s just torture.”
The opposition leader, Chris Minns, said the community needed more detail on the buyback scheme and called on both the state and federal governments to commit further money to get the rebuild moving faster.
“Now is the time to commit funds so that the community can get back on its feet and we can start the rebuild of the northern rivers,” he said.
