When Warwick Irwin returned home after a week away, he was shocked by the ruin inside.

It was February 2022 and two days earlier his North Lismore house had flooded to the ceiling. “It was quite a mind-blowing experience when I got into the house when the water went down.”

He was eventually offered a buyback , and used the money to buy elsewhere – “well above the flood level”.

“I was going to stay on but I thought about it and … there would always be an anxiety about the next flood,” Irwin said. He was glad not to have sold at a loss, unlike others in the region.

View image in fullscreen Warwick Irwin, whose destroyed belongings are pictured, has moved out of the flood zone of North Lismore. Photograph: Warwick Irwin

Almost 2,000 homes in Lismore were affected by flooding i

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