An incredible 110,000 tonnes of flood rubbish has been picked up in Lismore and yet the clean-up is only 40 per cent complete.
That's the estimation of Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg, who gave a joint update on the flood recovery on Tuesday alongside Major General David Thomae, Commander of Operation Flood Assist.
"I know it is a bit of a menial task but that is where my focus is with the ADF," Krieg said.
"To have their support and expertise for things we just can't get to."
As well as general duties clean-up and rubbish removal the ADF are heavily involved in engineering tasks such as restoring Nimbin's water supplies and improving vehicle access to remote communities.
Extra forces are being brought in from south-east Queensland with about 3,900 boots on the ground in northern NSW.
"As of today the joint task force has about 5000 people and of that 3900 approximately are in northern NSW," MAJGEN Thomae said.
"It's a mixture of general duties work, supporting the community by getting from kerb to dump truck and from house to kerb."
The deployment has no set end date, but as the need for general duties of clean-up winds down it will be left to engineers and those heavy equipment operators from the ADF to continue.
"As a community we would be nowhere near where we are now without the support of the ADF," Krieg said.
I'm a media professional with over 34 years of experience in public relations and journalism, including a decade setting Lismore's news agenda as the editor of The Northern Star. I have proven track record in growing audiences and improving engagement by delivering quality local stories for and about the Lismore community.
I'm a media professional with over 34 years of experience in public relations and journalism, including a decade setting Lismore's news agenda as the editor of The Northern Star. I have proven track record in growing audiences and improving engagement by delivering quality local stories for and about the Lismore community.
