Showing posts with label Lismore City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lismore City. Show all posts

Friday, 9 August 2024

29 months & 9 days after a catastrophic record flood hit Lismore and the long drawn out housing uncertainty for many residents continues

 

ECHO, 5 August 2024:






More voices of Lismore’s right-to-occupy movement have been heard after police failed to enforce another eviction notice distributed last week.


People from the Northern Rivers and beyond have been occupying, or squatting in, some of Lismore’s otherwise empty and shut-up flood impacted houses for an unknown period of time.


Some started to speak out in recent months after receiving threats of eviction from the NSW Reconstruction Authority.


The properties in question had been sold back to the government through the RA’s Resilient Homes Program.


But it quickly emerged that former homeowners were often happy to have people living in their old houses and caring for the properties, as were neighbours....








Last week, some squatters again received eviction notices from the RA and a police visit.


The letters were direct copies of the notices sent in June, including the same issue date of 17 June, House You founder Chels Hood-Withey said.


Lismore-based community group Reclaim Our Recovery issued a statement on Thursday describing police involvement.


This morning RA security decided to call police, triggering an attempt at an eviction by officers,’ the statement read.


The residents and supporters held their ground for today but police have promised to attend at 9am Friday 2nd to ensure people are out of the house,’ RoR said, referring to 172 Currie St, North Lismore.


People who live there, don’t have anywhere else to go, and intend to stay.’


Supporters again rallied around occupiers on Friday, hosting breakfasts at impacted properties.


This time, police didn’t end up coming.....








Mr Presco said, like Mr Ricketts in June, he was desperate to find out what assistance, if any, existed for people to move bought-back houses from Lismore’s floodplain to higher ground.


There’s meant to be houses, land packages, released at below market value in the new land release over at Southern Cross University,’ Mr Presco said, referring to an announcement from the RA earlier this year of new house-lots to be ready by 2026 as part of the Resilient Lands Program.


Mr Presco said it seemed the RA had back-tracked on the inclusion of land for floodplain houses in the land release.....


People were sheltering in the old homes at the end of winter, Mr Presco said, and were quite vulnerable.


They worried about police showing up ‘to drag them out,’ he said, ‘before they potentially get bulldozed’.


Turning them into social housing or relocating them seems a bit too difficult for a government agency that’s got a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars,’ Mr Presco said.


I don’t understand the absurdity of the situation.’


Speaking from another bought-back home, Roisin McSweeney said she and fellow occupiers had expected police to follow up on threatened evictions but were feeling resilient.


We’ve got a lot of support and a bit of a reputation for protecting these homes that we believe need to be lived in,’ Ms McSweeney said.



Wednesday, 10 January 2024

Lismore City - life is bouncing back

 

A month short of two years after Lismore City made national and international news for all the wrong reasons - a record breaking climate change-induced flood in a region being devastated by widespread unnatural disaster - it is back in the news in a happy and upbeat way.


 ECHO, 9 January 2024:


Lismore has been named as one of the world’s ‘Coolest Places to visit in 2024’ by the Qantas magazine.


The town was listed alongside New York, Shanghai, London and Venice as one of the world’s 25 must-see tourist destinations.







Acting Mayor Jeri Hall said it was a humbling but not surprising accolade which spoke to the renowned experiences Lismore offered through its vibrant arts and culture scene, and stunning natural environment.


I was not surprised to see Lismore up there with some of the world’s most popular destinations,’ Acting Mayor Hall said.


Lismore is becoming more and more vibrant with its ever-evolving dining scene, creative arts, culture and unique venues offering everything from live music to theatre and performance.


Lismore City recently hosted thousands of festival goers from right across the country who travelled here specifically for the legendary Tropical Fruits New Year’s Eve Festival. They all left with smiles on their faces and plans to return.’......


Tuesday, 28 February 2023

There was no rain recorded in Lismore from 9am on 27 February to 4:30am on 28 February 2023. How different was last year......

 

BOM 8.50am 27/02/2022

Heavy rainfall occurring

Minor flooding occurring. Rises to major flooding possible from overnight Sunday into Monday.


BOM 2.15pm 27/02/2022

Flood levels forecast

The Wilsons River may reach moderate flood level on Sunday evening. It may reach the major flood level early Monday.


SES 4.20pm 27/02/2022

Evacuation warning for Lismore

Residents and business in low-lying areas of Lismore may need to evacuate due to rising floodwater.


BOM 5.08pm 27/02/2022

Forecast revised

Renewed rises are occurring. The river level may reach 11.0 metres during Monday, the highest level since the March 2017 flood.


SES 9.30pm 27/02/2022

Evacuation order for North & South Lismore

South and North Lismore must evacuate now. Leave by 10pm. The Lismore CBD must evacuate by 5am.


BOM 11pm 27/02/2022

Levee to overtop

The levee protecting Lismore’s CBD is expected to overtop around 5am Monday. The river is now expected to reach the level of the historic March 1974 flood (12.15 metres). Further rises are possible.


SES 12.45am 28/02/2022

Lismore evacuate NOW!

North & South Lismore, Lismore CBD, Girards Hill and low-lying areas of East Lismore must evacuate now. Lift possessions and important items above the predicted flood height, take pets and essential items with you, and leave as early as possible.


BOM 1.09am 28/02/2022

Levee to overtop sooner

Moderate flooding is occurring. The levee is now likely to overtop around 3am. The river is still expected to reach around 12.15 metres late Monday morning, with further rises possible.


SES 1.45am 28/02/2022

Flood siren

The SES calls for Lismore’s flood siren to be sounded. The firefighters responsible for sounding the alarm have already been flooded out of their building.


SES 2.55am 28/02/2022

New river peak predicted

Major flooding is occurring at Lismore, and the levee is about to overtop at 10.6 metres. The river may reach around 13.50 metres on Monday evening.


BOM 5.56am 28/02/2022

Lismore’s first 14m flood forecast

The Wilsons River may reach around 14.00 metres on Monday afternoon, above the previous record flood in February 1954 (12.27 metres).


BOM 8.48am 28/02/2022

Record flooding is now occurring

Flooding is now occurring above the levels of the 1974 and 1954 floods. These record years have long been the benchmarks by which other floods are measured.


BOM 11.41am 28/02/2022

Peak predicted

The river is expected to peak at 14.4 metres on Monday afternoon.


BOM 2.52pm 28/02/2022

The situation steadies

The river level is now around 14.37 metres and steady.


BOM 8.17pm 28/02/2022

At last, the river level drops

The Wilsons River peaked in Lismore at 14.40 metres around 3pm. It is now falling.


[Timeline, ABC News, 27 February 2023]


At 10:28 am on the morning of 1 March 2022 the first death was reported. An elderly woman found in her own flooded home by a concerned neighbour.



Saturday, 25 February 2023

Tweets of the Week

 

 

 

Wednesday, 1 June 2022

City of Lismore - first Australian city to begin a major planned climate change reconstruction. Will all three tiers of government, the building-construction lobby, property developers & land speculators be able to resist the temptation to indulge their personal or political ambitions as well as their financial greed, in order to ensure the restoration of safe living space for a vibrant community whilst securing a culturally & environmentally sustainable future?



Lismore City in happier times
IMAGE: Lismore City Council















The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 2022:


Public servant David Witherdin holds the fate of the Northern Rivers in his hands, charged with extensive powers to rebuild the flood-ravaged region, writes Heath Gilmore.


David Witherdin is about to begin one of the biggest reconstruction jobs in Australian history, restoring the flood-blighted Northern Rivers of NSW, but he also must confront an even bigger task, almost existential in complexity: can he stop Lismore from drowning?…..


Extensive powers have been bestowed on Witherdin, chief executive of the newly created Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation, including to compulsorily acquire or subdivide land, fast-track the building of new premises and accelerate the delivery of planning proposals through the Department of Planning and Environment.


From July 1, and based in Lismore, the corporation will work with all state government agencies, seven local councils and the private sector to ensure that the reconstruction of infrastructure is co-ordinated and streamlined.


And, it is not only the building of new schools, bridges, roads, water and sewerage infrastructure that Witherdin will oversee. Thousands of residents potentially will be rehoused in new estates signed off by him; buildings rebuilt in a manner dictated by him; the order of infrastructure projects determined by him; and multimillion-dollar contracts awarded by him. Undoubtedly, developers and big contractors will lobby him. Further, he will drive a new master plan for Lismore City that responds to these changes, shaping the social and economic fabric of lives for generations.


He will have an advisory board, consult widely with community and local representatives, but ultimately, he will be answerable to one person: Deputy Premier Paul Toole.


It makes this father of three from Newcastle - a trained civil engineer who worked across the mining, utility, transport and local government sectors before a senior leadership role with the Department of Regional NSW - one of the most powerful figures in the Perrottet government. He has to succeed.


Walking the streets of towns and villages in the Northern Rivers it becomes clear why so much power has been vested in a stand-alone, unelected body. "We'll be pushing through mud literally for the next six months to make things happen, yeah, literally wading through s---," Witherdin says…..


Desolation is splattered right across the Northern Rivers, in the tongue-twister towns of Murwillumbah and Mullumbimby, along the winding rivers bordered by earthier named villages such as Wardell, Woodburn, Coraki and Broadwater, right up into the isolated dreamscape communities of the surrounding hills that are cut off by landslides. The region's population is about 280,000.


Ground zero is Lismore, known as the flood capital of Australia, with a population of about 27,000. Four people died in February as rising water inundated 3045 residential, commercial and industrial buildings and damaged hundreds of millions of dollars worth of critical infrastructure.


Large swaths of the city remain in limbo, waiting for the state or federal government to make a call on their future. Lismore City Council believes at least 1000 households should be relocated to higher ground at a cost of $400 million. And, the region faced flooding again this week.


Usually, elected officials in NSW - councillors, mayors and local MPs - jealously guard their role as the democratically elected repositories of political power that plays out across our lives. Lismore MP Janelle Saffin, Ballina MP Tamara Smith and the regions' seven mayors, however, all support the elevation of Witherdin and his corporation. This disaster was just too big to argue otherwise.


From the first day of the disaster, a still wet Saffin, who had to swim for her life through the floodwater, voiced the need for a single body to rebuild the Northern Rivers, similar to what happened after Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin, and the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, which was created after the 2011 floods.


Saffin made it her mission to convince the NSW government to back the idea by being "persistent, consistent". "We were wiped out," Saffin, a Labor MP, says. "I've been through over 40 years of floods, and even 2017, which was really catastrophic, we were able to manage to get up, even with a lot of trauma and pain, but this one was different.


"State and federal governments can be with you in the immediacy of a big event. But they get consumed by the daily business of everything else and everywhere else in the state.


"So I wanted a commitment from government, with a reconstruction body, recognising that this event is like no other we've experienced, and we're going to back you for the long haul.


"Otherwise we'll be buggered."


An ongoing NSW Flood Inquiry, chaired by Professor Mary O'Kane and former NSW Police commissioner Mick Fuller, is conducting hearings and taking submissions, examining everything contributing to the frequency, intensity, timing and location of floods, including climate change.


NSW Deputy Premier Toole says their recommendations will drive the focus of the corporation. The first report from O'Kane and Fuller is due by the end of June.


Toole says the corporation will look at areas where it makes the "most sense" to rebuild as well as work with the insurance industry to ensure reconstruction is sustainable and insurable.


"We want the NRRC [Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation] to make decisions on what the evidence is telling us because we're not just building back for now, this is about future-proofing these towns," he says.


The Northern Rivers can be a chaotic and passionate mix of rural conservatism, hard-scrabble working class and loud green activism. It straddles world heritage rainforest, prime farm land and a multimillion-dollar coastal property market, including Byron Bay.


Ballina MP Tamara Smith, from the Greens, whose electorate includes Byron Bay, Mullumbimby, Lennox Head and Ballina, says the community will be on guard for opportunists trying to take advantage of the flood disaster.


"The Greens are very concerned that under the cloak of a natural disaster, we could see open slather development," she says.


"I'm less worried about them compulsorily acquiring property, as I am about them declaring a moratorium on planning laws so developers could do what they want in certain areas, under the argument of providing more stock."


Witherdin will not be drawn on how the lives of Northern Rivers residents will be safeguarded until the inquiry presents its first report. However, he says engineering and planning expertise will be vital, especially in the areas of hydrology and flood modelling. Promising a full and honest dialogue with the community, respecting their wishes, he candidly admits that some decisions may be unpopular. "This won't be easy," he says. "I think as soon as you draw a line on a map, we will absolutely feel that. But we'll get there. I know the solutions will be different from town to town, catchment to catchment. We've got to listen to our community and understand what they've been through, a lot of pain. I know the corporation will have the tools in the toolkit and the relevant experience [to meet the government's aims], but the corporation is there to work with the community to also find out their best outcomes, not to sort of walk in there and impose things."


Witherdin says the work of the corporation will set up the Northern Rivers communities for the next 50 to 100 years. "As we look to the future [with climate change], I think we are likely to see more of this kind of natural disaster - not just in Australia but internationally," he says. "If we do this reconstruction well, it could really serve as a great template of what to do in the future across Australia."


Thursday, 31 March 2022

That Lismore City has flooded a second time in 31 days is a surprise to no-one except perhaps the Perrottet and Morrison governments

 

Lismore Levee
IMAGE: ABC News 30 March 2022















The Wilsons River at Lismore began flooding again at 4.43am on Tuesday 29 March 2022. This is the second flood in thirty-one days - the first setting a flood record on 28 February 2022 when it peaked at 14.4m causing widespread devastation from which Lismore City Local Government Area is yet to recover. 


This should have come as no surprise to federal and state government cabinet ministers ensconced in Canberra and Sydney, as Lismore has a history of two floods in a year dating back almost as far as records have been kept.


However, the unfolding official response to this second flood event is almost as fractured and leaderless as the first. Once more communities are coping with just the assistance of local emergency services already stretched thin by the first flood's aftermath.


According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology at 2:10 am EDT on Thursday, 31 March 2022:


River level peaks were observed along the Wilsons River at Woodlawn around 3pm Wednesday and along Leycester Creek at Tuncester around 8pm Wednesday. 

A major flood peak of 11.40 metres was observed at Lismore around 5pm Wednesday. 

River levels along the Wilsons River at Lismore are likely to remain above the height of the levee during Thursday morning with major flooding, before easing further during the afternoon. 


Flood waters along the Richmond River combined with inflows from the Wilsons River have resulted in major flooding along the Richmond River at Coraki and Bungawalbin. Moderate flooding is occurring at Woodburn with major flooding possible. The main flood peak at 13.81m passed through Kyogle Wednesday night and is now approaching Casino where minor flooding is possible. 


 At 2:11am on Thursday 31 March 2022 the Wilsons River water level was recorded at 11.12m and rising and at 3am the Richmond River at 13.27m (Kyogle) and 11.70m (Casino). 


This could not be happening at a worse time in the history of Lismore City with a manifestly incompetent mayor at the helm of a new council and, state and federal governments more focussed on politics surrounding the forthcoming federal general election than they are on climate change-induced adverse weather events causing widespread regional flooding or the plight of the thousands of flood victims. 


Sunday, 9 January 2022

COVID-19 State of Play Northern NSW 2022: what a difference three months make


THEN


Excerpt from a Statement from Lynne Weir, Acting Chief Executive Northern NSW Local Health District, 23 September 2021:


In our District, there are currently sufficient Intensive Care beds across our three major hospitals in Grafton, Lismore and Tweed, with plans in place to surge staffing and intensive care capacity, if and when required, our networked hospital system ensures patients can be transferred or redirected to other hospitals where necessary, including private hospitals.


Throughout the early stages of the pandemic, we sourced additional equipment, including ventilators, and we regularly review our stocks and supply chains of resources, including PPE and pharmacy items, to ensure adequate supplies.


From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Northern NSW Local Health District has been actively increasing its staffing and upskilling its workforce in readiness to care for COVID-19 patients in our region.


Additional training programs were developed for nurses, midwives, and allied health staff, with more than 265 staff attending surge training in Intensive Care, Emergency and Immunisation specialties to provide additional capacity to care for patients.


Lismore Base Hospital is the primary receiving hospital for COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalisation in the District, having recently undergone significant redevelopment to provide a new Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit, as well as other general hospital wards. These refurbishments have also delivered more single room capacity across the facility. Our other major hospitals in the District also have trained staff and the necessary equipment to cater for COVID patients if required as the pandemic evolves.


Between mid-2012 and mid-2021, NNSWLHD increased its workforce by an additional 1,219 FTE staff - an increase of 32.3 per cent including 211 more doctors 461 more nurses and midwives and 141 more allied health staff.


Message received by a registered nurse in NSW on 13 December 2021:


via @vintage_nurse


Northern NSW Local Health District, media release excerpt, 16 October 2021:


Visiting restrictions at hospitals across Northern NSW Local Health District are being eased slightly to allow visitors back into health facilities in a staged approach.


A patient may have one visitor once a day for one hour, between the hours of 1pm and 6pm.


Visitors must be at least 12 years of age, and must have be fully vaccinated with two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.


Visitors will need to carry evidence of their vaccination status on entry to the health facility, and must wear a surgical mask while on site.


Acting Chief Executive, Northern NSW Local Health District, Lynne Weir said people should continue to keep up to date with contact tracing alerts, and be vigilant against any symptoms of COVID-19 so they do not attend a health facility if they feel unwell.


People must not visit if they have any COVID-19 symptoms, are a close contact of a confirmed case (or are within their isolation period), live in a household with a person who is currently isolating, or if they are waiting for a COVID-19 test result,” Ms Weir said.

People also must not visit if they have been to case locations in NSW, interstate affected areas or New Zealand in the past 14 days.”



NOW


The Guardian, 7 January 2022:


One of New South Wales’ major regional hospitals had to source its own triage tent, is sending Covid tests six hours away due to a lack of space for its own diagnosis machine, and has had positive patients wait 30 hours to be transferred to a designated hospital for those with the virus.


Doctors at the Tweed hospital, which is 1km from the Queensland border in northern NSW and serves a hinterland that includes Byron Bay, are even donning personal protective equipment to drive home, in their own cars, asymptomatic Covid-positive patients because taxis won’t take them.


Kristin Ryan-Agnew, president of the local branch of the Nurses and Midwives Association and a senior nurse at the hospital, said local Covid cases were tripling daily, much faster than the 5o% growth in new cases reported for NSW as a whole on Wednesday.


As a result of increased presentations to Tweed’s emergency department, nurses were doing “double shifts every day” with one day off before resuming the toil. “They’re going to fall over in a screaming heap,” she said. “They will not be able to manage.”


Eighteen staff, many of them senior, have resigned since December out of a roster of about 150, citing burnout and the better conditions offered over the border.


Queensland offers $1,800 a year for nurses’ education, a Covid bonus – both absent in NSW – and higher wages, Ryan-Agnew said.


“They were really top-notch, really good quality staff, and they can walk up to the Gold Coast and they’ll just completely snaffle them.”


As Guardian Australia reported on Wednesday, nurses at Lismore Base hospital – the destination for Tweed’s Covid patients needing treatment – are also struggling to cope with a surge in medical needs.


The Tweed hospital is buckling under spiking demand for care and a lack of trained staff and appropriate equipment. A senior manager, for instance, had to phone around themselves and then purchase the triage tent prior to Christmas after months of pleading to the health department, Ryan-Agnew said.


The tent, though, remains far from adequate, with no toilet, forcing potentially Covid-positive patients – and anyone waiting for PCR testing to cross the border – to traipse through the main hospital lobby.


You can have people with heart conditions, sick kids, elderly, frail, all sitting there waiting to be seen, and you’ve got a potential Covid patient walking through the waiting room,” Ryan-Agnew said.


Patients with chest and severe abdominal pain, septic children and adults should be in beds not a tent without nursing care, staff said. Earlier this week, one Covid patient had to wait 17 hours before being transferred to Lismore, while another patient had to wait 30 hours before being moved on Wednesday.


The nurse manager shares office space and air-conditioning with two beds set aside for Covid patients with no air-locked space for changing PPE.


We have bottles of hand sanitiser sitting on top of overflowing bins, flapping Covid tent flaps compromising PPE,” another staff member, who requested anonymity, said.


We also continue to struggle getting adequate PPE and supplies, certain masks run out, no hair coverings and no disposable blood pressure cuffs.”


The triage tent sourced by a senior manager at Tweed hospital.
Photograph: Supplied










Read the full story here.


The Guardian, 8 January 2022:


Staff at the hospital serving tourist mecca Byron Bay in northern New South Wales say the facility is under “extreme strain”, with Covid-positive patients left in bays behind curtains and one patient waiting 45 hours to be transported to the region’s designated Covid hospital.


As many as 100 people a day are arriving at the Byron Central hospital, stretching staff already depleted by Covid-forced absences. The Byron area had a double-vaccination rate of about 85% as of 20 December, one of the lowest in NSW.


Healthcare workers collecting information from the public at a Covid testing site in Sydney


The hospital’s single isolation room was taken up by one Covid patient for almost two days earlier this week before being transported. “We are constantly being crippled by a lack of transfer options” with ambulances often unavailable because of their own shortages, a senior staffer who requested anonymity said.


We have a positive pressure room also that is being used as an isolation room and another room which we can close an actual door on,” the hospital worker said. “These are often all taken up, so we have Covid-positive patients in bays behind curtains because we can’t get people to where they need to be in a timely manner.”


As reported this week by Guardian Australia, northern NSW hospitals are under increasing strain at the designated Covid hospital at Lismore and at the bigger Tweed hospital near the border with Queensland.


Byron’s challenges are made worse by the loss of medical staff who have refused the government’s Covid vaccination mandate, and its proximity to communities with relatively large anti-vaccination support.


The region also has a relatively high number of cases per 1,000 people, with another 1,154 Covid cases in northern NSW in the latest 24-hour reporting period.


Northern NSW Local Health District website:


Hospital Visitors: Changes and Restrictions


Visitor restrictions are in place to protect patients, staff and visitors at our hospitals and health facilities.


Visitors are now restricted at all hospitals and health facilities in Northern NSW.

Exemptions will be considered on a case by case basis for compassionate or extenuating circumstances, for example in the case of palliative care.

Women accessing birthing services can continue to nominate one support person (participant in care) during her labour, birth and post-birth.

For outpatient appointments and community services, telehealth appointments are being utilised where possible.

All patients and visitors are required to wear a mask when entering a health facility.


As a precautionary measure ALL visitors will be screened on entry and will be required to check in using the QR code and provide evidence of their COVID-19 vaccination.


You will also be asked:


Do you have any COVID-19 symptoms?

Have you been identified as a close contact of a COVID-19 case in the past 14 days?

Have you returned from overseas in the past 14 days?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you will not be permitted to enter the facility.