Arabic version: نشطاء يطالبون بوقف مؤقت لهدم منزل شارع فرانك
A late 1800s house on Frank Street in South Lismore has become a focal point for residents campaigning to stop demolitions of state buyback properties on the Northern Rivers flood plain.
According to ABC News, the NSW Reconstruction Authority (RA) has bought back 835 homes under the Resilient Homes Program, with more than 400 earmarked for relocation. The RA has demolished 207 houses so far and says another 168 are set to be bulldozed by November. The authority said “wherever possible RA are prioritising the relocation, reuse and recycling of buyback properties over demolition” and that “to date more than 70 per cent of eligible material from demolished homes have been recycled, excluding asbestos containing materials, across the Northern Rivers.”
Local activists, including Yani Clarke, have been working with community groups to preserve built heritage and question the scale and speed of demolitions. Protestors inside the Frank Street house say it is too valuable to demolish, and family members of previous owners have described the property as full of local history. Sandra Cahill, who grew up next door, said, “Our heritage lives in every one of those houses and I think they have earned their right to stay upright after all these years of floods.” The RA issued a demolition notice for the property but has since given the owner more time to give it away or explore options to dismantle it.
The property contains a workshop where Rudolph Schafer converted a Model T Ford into Lismore’s first ambulance, and salvagers say the house holds big scrub timbers of high quality. Rainforest timber expert Kevin Glencross has been assessing and salvaging timbers since the 2022 floods, saying, “This needs to be done carefully and thoughtfully, but it also needs to be done professionally and within commercial timelines.” He added, “To me, every lineal metre is important,” and described Frank Street as “a critically emblematic house and the timber in it is some of the best big scrub timber I have seen.” The workshop at the rear of the property is slated for demolition.
This matters because the buyback program and subsequent demolitions directly affect how flood-impacted communities recover their housing, preserve local history and manage valuable timber resources salvaged after the 2022 floods. What happens next: the RA intends to demolish a further 168 houses by November, while activists and salvage experts press for relocation, reuse or careful dismantling where possible.
Related sections: Australia/استراليا | Australian Capital Territory | New South Wales | General | Social/إجتماعية
