Over the next month, Liam Bolitho and Rachel Rouse will remove decking, disconnect their electricity and air conditioners and clear the space underneath their North Lismore home.<\/p>\n
In July, contractors will chainsaw the couple\u2019s home of 10 years in half and load it into trucks. Then they will take the house \u2013 among more than 4,000 assessed as uninhabitable after 2022\u2019s devastating floods \u2013 to a plot of land above the flood level.<\/p>\n
The couple have done it all without the help of the New South Wales<\/a> government\u2019s $100m Resilient Lands Program (RLP), established in October 2022 to provide land for flood-affected residents to relocate or build new homes. Instead the couple found and bought the land themselves for about $500,000.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they first announced these programs, we were like, that sounds great, that\u2019s what we want,\u201d Bolitho says. \u201cWe were always asking the Reconstruction Authority, \u2018Hey, when\u2019s the land coming up?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the initial six months, we were like, \u2018Man, these guys don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The $100m RLP and the $880m Resilient Homes Program (RHP) \u2013 a scheme to buy back homes and fund retrofits, house raises and relocations \u2013 were rolled out after the floods as part of the costliest disaster recovery program in Australian history. But a damning report released last week by the NSW auditor general found that, after three-and-a-half years, the RLP is yet to deliver a single home or lot. The report found neither program was planned effectively before their rollout, causing delays and a \u201csignificant impact on their ongoing implementation\u201d.<\/p>\n The auditor general has recommended the NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSWRA) \u2013 which oversees both programs \u2013 takes action by September to accelerate the delivery of the RLP sites. The NSWRA\u2019s chief executive, Kate Fitzgerald, has said she accepts the findings and will act on the recommendations.<\/p>\n But for many \u2013 including Bolitho and Rouse \u2013 those efforts will come too late.<\/p>\n Commitment confusion<\/p>\n The extensive flooding in the northern rivers between late February and early April 2022 led to the deaths of 13 people. More than 4,000 properties were left uninhabitable and another 10,849 were damaged.<\/p>\n When the RLP was announced, landholders were urged to propose suitable land. But the program\u2019s strategy, which identified 12 sites to deliver housing in the region, was not published until August 2024.<\/p>\n Last week\u2019s report found it had yet to deliver any of this land. Nine of the 12 sites are now due to be completed by the end of this year or during 2027, with the remainder planned to be completed in 2028.<\/p>\n Saffron Bond was part of a group who relocated their homes to an estate of vacant lots they found in Nimbin. Photograph: Elise Derwin<\/p>\n Residents will be offered the chance to buy lots in the first of the sites, in North Lismore, in the middle of this year, with home relocations beginning in early 2027.<\/p>\n Saffron Bond, whose mother is waiting for the chance to buy one of the lots, is sceptical.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re saying June but we all know, when they tell us a date, you add six months,\u201d says Bond, who is occasionally interrupted by her loudly crowing rooster.<\/p>\n Bond, like Bolitho and Rouse, has used the money from a \u201cbuyback\u201d she received from the RHP to privately find and purchase her own lot. She was part of a group from Lismore who relocated their homes to an estate of vacant lots they found in Nimbin to the north.<\/p>\n \u201cWe gave [the NSWRA] more support than they gave us, because they watched what we did and went, \u2018We can create a template from this\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email <\/a><\/p>\n Residents were initially told there would be $1.5bn in funding for 6,000 homes to be remediated or bought back. Of those, 4,000 would undergo \u201cresilient measures\u201d including retrofits, locations and raises through the RHP.<\/p>\n The NSW government has denied this was ever a firm commitment, although the $1.5bn figure was part of the proposal to federal cabinet by the NSWRA\u2019s predecessor, the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation.<\/p>\n