Liam Bolitho and Rachel Rouse are cutting their North Lismore home in half and relocating it to higher ground, having given up on the New South Wales government's $100m Resilient Lands Program (RLP). The couple, whose home was among more than 4,000 rendered uninhabitable by the devastating 2022 floods, found and purchased their own land for about $500,000 after the program failed to deliver any lots.
A damning report from the NSW auditor general, released last week, found that the RLP, established in October 2022, has yet to deliver a single home or lot. The report also criticised the $880m Resilient Homes Program (RHP), which funds buybacks, retrofits, house raises and relocations, for being poorly planned, causing delays. The NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSWRA) has accepted the findings and promised action by September.
Bolitho said the couple initially welcomed the programs but grew frustrated after six months of waiting. 'We were always asking the Reconstruction Authority, “Hey, when’s the land coming up?” After the initial six months, we were like, “Man, these guys don’t know what they’re doing,”' he said.
The floods in February to April 2022 killed 13 people and damaged nearly 11,000 properties. The RLP strategy, identifying 12 sites, was not published until August 2024, and nine sites are now due for completion by 2027, with the rest by 2028. The first lots in North Lismore are expected mid-2025, with relocations beginning in early 2027.
Other residents, like Saffron Bond, have also bypassed the program. Bond used a buyback from the RHP to privately purchase land in Nimbin. 'We gave [the NSWRA] more support than they gave us, because they watched what we did and went, “We can create a template from this,”' she said.
The auditor general found 793 buybacks had been completed by March 2025, but only 54 resilient measures, with about $581.5m allocated. Applications have now closed. NSW recovery minister Janelle Saffin said the government had always prioritised buybacks, despite earlier suggestions of 6,000 homes being remediated.
