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DëĶōĶŕī ƆƷƆƐĕŔ ĈſĕëƐĕƆ Ŕşſĕ ƐſëƖŔë Īşſ ǖşşĎ ưĶĈƐĶŔƆ
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on’t ask me how my house is. Please. This question brings forth an escalated spike in my nervous system, and a sense of panic and dread. I know you ask because you care and because you are excited that I may have shared with you that I had found a way forwards. But the way forwards is fraught and the uncertainties that continue even though it should be simple, and for you I know it is, because like most, you are an outsider to my story despite me having shared a little. And that’s not your fault, it’s no one’s fault. It just is. I think it’s time to tell a human story, and I think it’s time to allow myself to be angry, truly angry and devastated at the mismanagement of the NRRC, now the NSW Reconstruction Agency (NSWRA), and to illuminate the further trauma this organisation and its inability to actually help people move forwards has caused flood survivors, on top of the flood trauma itself. This has been one of the hardest years of my life. Last year I had the benefit of spending a whole year in shock after losing our home, our memories, our place, our stability. This year, back home, we began the year with the further destabilisation of learning we would be eligible for a buyback. We were some of the ‘lucky’ ones who have not spent a year waiting only to be told they are eligible for nothing. So this whole year, I have been navigating all of the unknowns which have come with this, the excruciating waits for the next piece of information. I have looked in many directions as to how to move forwards, without knowing what we would be offered, what the terms would be, where we would go, if we could save our house, whether the Resilient Lands Program would come through with land for people to move to. It is nearly the end of the year and still no land announcements, no tangible future within those hollow promises. My weeks are punctuated with overcoming my own growing trauma with the whole process, to make contact with my case manager and try to progress my case to the point of actually having a contract with concrete numbers, terms and conditions rather than ‘likelihoods’.
A house in Lismore hoping to be moved. This is not the author’s property. Photo Aslan Shand
Time for action In the meantime, realising that I couldn’t continue to exist in a state of ongoing limbo where there is no resolution, and the circles I turn in became a prison with no walls, I began to look for land myself. There are few places you can move a Queenslander to, and few places you can afford to buy land with what you will ‘potentially’ be offered within a buyback scheme. So I reevaluated and looked for other houses, other properties, other anything? The questions: Do I move further inland to land which is more affordable and further from work? Can I dislocate my family again after already being so destabilised? There is little to hold on to and I understand those lonely drivers who meet with trees. Full stop. How many lives will be lost before this broken system is fixed? Before the human collateral is visible to those beyond our immediate community? Until today, I was trying, with incredible resilience – there’s that word again which has become distasteful as it rolls through my mouth. And really, I have been a superhuman this year, I have supported two broken children with broken schools and broken teachers – all spent and nothing left – through a year of HSC, plus their exams whilst continuing to uphold a job, care for the students I teach, care for the team I lead. At the same time I’m navigating my own way forward to find some land, make
a deposit and trust that the NSWRA would come through with an early release of funds.
Want to move forward I accepted the somewhat under par offer they made for our house despite knowing that others had been offered more for houses in much worse condition before the floods – investment properties made fit for profit and not home comfort. I wished to move forward as quickly as possible to a point of securing the land I found which allows for a Queenslander and could meet my needs. I accepted that it would mean stepping back from a job I love as I can’t afford to live in the community I service . Moving my house means moving an extra 30km from my work place – a 180km round trip each day. It is impossible. I accepted all that and I trusted that NSWRA would come through with an early release of funds to buy the land and that we could then stay in the house until the final settlement at which time the remainder of the funds would be released. Because this is a solution which makes sense on a practical and human level. Today I heard, (after more than nine weeks of suppositions and hope since accepting our offer) that they will only release ten per cent of the funds towards land purchase before settlement and you cannot stay in the house once settlement occurs. Settlement meaning them releasing
the full amount of money on offer. This is an impossible situation. With no land available through the Resilient Lands Program to move houses to, people have no choice but to find their own land themselves, but then how do we secure land when NSWRA is unable to support that fully? There seems to be no consideration given to the process moving a house entails – I guess this should not surprise me as I have been the one doing the legwork for this process myself with no insight or support offered from the powers that be. When I met with Resilient Lands earlier this year to see if there was any possibility of this being an option for relocation, I was asked to share the spreadsheet I had created to map out the costings of moving a house! On top of the lack of insight into costings, there is also no foresight given to the length of time these processes require. A two-week period beyond settlement to have readied your house for removal is ridiculous, let alone the clearing of the site which I believe to also be part of the contract – though as we know, I am yet to receive one, so again, more suppositions.
Patience Everything takes time – I waited nearly three months to have my house assessed to see if it was able to be relocated to the land I found. Another three months of anxious uncertainty. Once I enter a contract with the house removal company it
will be another six to nine months before they can do the job. It would indeed be easier to give up on trying to save the house we spent the whole of last year fixing. I placed hope in my case manager when he said months ago that no one had put a cap on the amount of money that could be released. No precedent had been set. Well it seems it has been the singular piece of information now delivered since accepting our offer nine weeks ago. Another nine weeks spent not knowing – asking question upon question. Researching the steps needed to move a house and reestablish a home elsewhere. (And the steps are many, tiresome and every single one a new process to learn and embody alongside of upholding the everyday demands of being a working single mother). Meanwhile the vendor of the land I have exchanged contracts with – the contract subject to me entering a contract with NSWRA within 12 weeks from exchange (that now being near seven weeks ago, so time is ticking) – agitates the real estate agent a few times a week, who then agitates me a few times a week and wants to know how it’s progressing. And until today I have had no further information to give and we continue our circle of wasting more time whilst waiting. I can certainly tell you I am beyond weary of regulating my own trauma, and managing the stress which is coming back from last year, and enduring what this year entails.
NSWRA failure So now I know that what I thought possible is not and I yet again have to navigate another way forwards. Again my parents bear the brunt of my emotional collapse as they are the ones to deliver the news. The other thing I heard today is that we should have some details of the contract by December 16! More than three months after accepting our initial offer! Yes, let’s drink to that! It’s beyond outrageous! By then my contract exchanged for the land itself will lapse unless I take out a mortgage and take on that burden on top of all the others I navigate in this process. Whilst the money which could be made available sits somewhere helping no one. I am enraged!
School Counsellor Commencing January 2024 Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School is currently seeking a School Counsellor to provide individual counselling services to our students, Monday to Friday 8:30am–3:30pm (term time only). The successful candidate will be professional, motivated, and suitably ȷɖƏǼǣˡƺƳِ Our independent K-12 Steiner School is situated in a beautiful bush setting in Ewingsdale near the township of Byron Bay.
Applications close Monday 4th December Position description and application process capebyronsteiner.nsw.edu.au 12 The Byron Shire Echo mşưĕŔćĕſ ǩǰǽ ǩǧǩǪ
www.echo.net.au