ABOVE: The IGA supermarket in River St, Woodburn was inundated in the 2022 floods. Photo: Trina Boland
Susanna Freymark
Woodburn needs a supermarket.
The IGA on the corner of River and Cedar streets was refurbished a year before the 2022 February–March floods hit.
The supermarket had been closed for 18 months and was reopened on February 3, 2021 by Tania and Neale Hundy.
Then came the 2022 floods. The supermarket has remained closed since then with no sign of it reopening.
At the Richmond Valley Council meeting on Tuesday, March 21, Councillor Robert Hayes pushed for something to be done about the lack of a supermarket.
On March 7, councillors and council staff met with the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation chief executive David Witherdin at a closed information session.
Mr Hayes said he brought up the Woodburn supermarket with Mr Witherdin as well as the need to treat flood-affected towns as separate identities.
What is needed at Woodburn is not the same as at Broadwater or Coraki, he said.
“I’m not confident they are going about it (flood recovery) the right way,” Mr Hayes said.
“Individual towns should be treated individually. The needs are different.”
Mr Hayes wants the Reconstruction Corporation to do something about getting a supermarket back in Woodburn.
He was also concerned about the house buyback scheme.
“The house buybacks will create conflict between residents,” he said.
“There are people who want to stay. They have lived with floods all their lives, families who have gone through the flood and got a Back to Home grant.
“Another Back to Home grant is needed. Council should be pushing for this.”
The corporation’s $700million Resilient Homes Program has had 5900 Northern Rivers homeowners register.
At least 1300 of these are in the Richmond Valley.
Some 350 properties across the region have been identified for buyback, including 20 so far in Richmond Valley.
Council’s general manager Vaughan Macdonald said every conversation comes back to housing.
We need workers and workers need houses, he said.
At the information session with council, Mr Witherdin presented details of the $200million flood repair program which included roads, bridges, culverts and water and sewerage repairs in the Richmond Valley.
The program would take three to five years to complete.
The Reconstruction Corporation has been advised of a further $188million in unfunded projects for the flood recovery including Naughtons Gap restoration and the replacement of the Casino Sewage Treatment Plant.
Mayor Robert Mustow said the council asked Mr Witherdin to return for another information session in a few months.
Mr Macdonald said the issue of a supermarket in Woodburn would be raised with the Reconstruction Corporation business team next week.
“We will continue to advocate where we can,” he said.
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