Flood relocation scheme explained by Jamie Simmonds the environmental engineer who helped move Grantham

Once land was secured for a new housing estate on higher ground in Grantham, residents were moving in just 11 months later.

MORE STORIES:

One of the prime movers behind Grantham's relocation, environmental architect Jamie Simmonds, said the process was surprisingly simple.

"People wanted to move fast," he said.

"It took eight months to build the estate and once the estate was done, one or two homes had been completed already and another dozen were underway.

"It is just about figuring out a process and ways of doing it."

The process was surprisingly simple in Grantham's case.

Once land was secured there were a series of open days where residents, who had registered for relocation, were invited to tour the site and pick their favourite lots.

They numbered their picks from one to 40 and a ballot, run by an independent organisation, was carried out to randomly allocate house sites based on those preferences

In about 75 per cent of cases, residents got one of their top three picks.

"It really wasn't just about people picking their lots, it was about getting people to buy in, and buy into the process and be a part of the whole project," he said.

"We wanted people to feel like they were part of it and had some ownership."

Although Grantham residents were given the option of relocating their homes from the original township, most people didn't in the end.

"At first we had a lot of people saying they wanted to bring their house up the hill and we did a lot of work to make that happen, but in the end, not a lot did," Mr Simmonds said.

"Most found it was better, easier and cheaper to build new.

"I think we had half a dozen come up on the hill, but most people built new."

Government and other donated money was used to assist those people who were uninsured make the move.

"In the case of uninsured people, we were fortunate enough to have a relief fund that the Queensland Government set up," Mr Simmonds said.

"From memory, anyone uninsured could get up to $150k to rebuild. We also had a bunch of donations to distribute to people so it worked out well.

"We also spent time with banks and insurance companies to support residents. This was really important because the banks didn't want a mortgage over a house with little value and could see the benefits of moving up the hill.

"The situation might be different in Lismore if you have lots of uninsured or otherwise the uninsured have started spending their money on rebuilding. But bringing people and banks/insurers together and really understanding what they all need can open up opportunities."

Mr Simmonds said Grantham opted for relocations rather than buybacks in order to keep the community together as much as possible after the 2011 disaster.

"To us buybacks seemed like paying people to leave the community," he said.

"But Grantham was much smaller and you can't lose your town.

"But once you lose a critical mass of people, like the baker leaves, then the butcher leaves, then the best teacher and suddenly, Lismore wouldn't be what it was like before."

Seven months after the flood in Lismore, many residents have been left scratching their heads and asking why are land swaps taking so long here?

They were told to wait for the establishment of the Northern Rivers Reconstruction in July and then the result of the NSW Flood Inquiry in August.

Details of land swaps, buybacks and relocations were promised by the end of August. Instead, expressions of interests were called for potential land developments.

Mr Simmonds said it was important for governments to take a step in the right direction.

"We delivered Grantham really quickly but we didn't really have to," he said.

"People will run with you as long as you are taking steps.

"Just take steps in the right direction, it might take two years, three years, as long as people can see progress they can make plans around it.