Susanna Freymark
Buybacks have been contentious and nowhere more so than in Woodburn – a town that knows how to live through floods. And a town that was devastated by the 2022 floods.
With little high ground available, when a house becomes a buyback and is demolished, residents don’t have many choices in Woodburn itself – this means they leave.
Woodburn Action Group (WAG) was set up by locals in April this year to reduce the number of buyback houses being demolished in Woodburn.
Two of the members spoke at the Richmond Valley Council meeting on Tuesday, August 18.
Rod n Reel publican Daniel Simpson said there were 30 buyback houses in Woodburn.
Out those 30 homes, 10–15 buybacks were based on ‘exceptional circumstances’ rather than flood levels.
WAG wants the council to support advocating for the NSW Reconstruction Authority to keep those ‘exceptional circumstances’ houses in Woodburn and retrofit or raise them so someone else can live in them.
Otherwise these will be vacant blocks of land that the council will have to maintain, Mr Simpson told the council meeting.
“Woodburn is unique. It does not have available land.”
Woodburn Public School principal Michael Lord said the loss of homes had impacted Woodburn Public and St Joseph’s Catholic School.
“23% of our enrolments across both schools is impactful,” Mr Lord said.
He told councillors and council staff the social implications on families.
“It is a continual pressure on our town, we see families struggling with rentals.
“These are not just buildings – they are potentially future homes for our kids.”
WAG wants the ‘exceptional circumstances’ homes to be removed from the Resilient Homes Program and keep them in Woodburn.
Councillor Robert Hayes said the Resilient Homes Program has put everything in limbo.
“We need to change what is happening in Woodburn,” he said.
Mr Hayes wants to see the houses in Richmond Street slated for demolition be relocated in Woodburn.
“I know someone who has relocated a house from Queensland. Why would you do that when there is one 100m down the road?”
He said the rollout of the Reconstruction Authority’s work has been “very slow.”
The report on the council agenda outlined the council’s concerns regarding the current application of the Resilient Homes Program in Woodburn, highlighting the community impacts arising from the removal of 10% of the housing stock in a smaller community.
The recommendation was to continue working with the Authority and the National Emergency Management Agency and to write to the Federal Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories Kirsty McBain, and Minister for Emergency Management, Minister for Recovery, Minister for Small Business, and Minister for the North Coast Janelle Saffin and request that properties bought back under the exceptional circumstances policy and not at high flood risk, remain available for residential use to minimise the loss of population in the Woodburn township.
On July 8 this year, Richmond Valley Council and the Woodburn Action Group jointly requested that the NSW Reconstruction Authority temporarily pause the removal of buyback properties located outside the Richmond Street corridor to allow further consultation and investigation of alternative outcomes.
As the Resilient Homes Program approaches completion, the Reconstruction Authority is now the property owner of an estimated 30 properties within Woodburn.
The loss of these homes has impacted Woodburn in these ways:
- 26.5% enrolment decline at Woodburn Public School, leading to loss of leadership and teaching staff as well as support staff
- 17.8% enrolment decline at St Joseph’s Primary School
- 22.8% overall primary student loss across the town
- Housing and rental scarcity causing family displacement
- Decline of members in local sporting clubs
- Breakdown of neighbourhood support networks and volunteer bases.
For communities such as Woodburn, population retention is also a health issue, the report said.
Local health services have raised concerns about the growing mental health impacts on residents, reporting increasing numbers of patients experiencing persistent anxiety, stress, grief, and emotional exhaustion, the council report said.
“These challenges are linked not only to the original disaster but also to the prolonged and uncertain recovery process.
“There is increasing concern about the cumulative effect that extended uncertainty is having on residents who continue to remain in Woodburn, with many experiencing ongoing emotional strain and a declining sense of confidence in the future.
“The reality of there being no housing stock on offer to keep buyback occupants local is an issue unlike the solutions provided for buyback recipients in neighbouring councils such as Lismore.”
Many of the properties acquired under individual and exceptional circumstances are located among dwellings identified as having a moderate flood constraint and are mapped within Category 2(a) of Council’s Flood Risk Management Study and Plan 2026.
Within these areas, development is permissible subject to an increased level of assessment and appropriate flood related engineering controls. 
And what will happen to vacant blocks where houses have been removed?
The council in partnership with the Reconstruction Authority will determine future land uses, ownership and management arrangements, which may include parklands, environmental projects, community spaces or, where flood risk can be managed, selected commercial or industrial uses.
If the council is successful in the alteration of the current treatment of some buyback properties, consultants will prepare the planning proposal and supporting studies required to complete this by June 2027, including undertaking community consultation.
The council acknowledges that the government rules do not currently permit the ongoing residential use or repurposing of buyback properties.
However, through the adoption of this recommendation, the council will escalate advocacy to the ministers responsible for the National Emergency Management Agency and NSW Reconstruction Authority for policy changes that provide greater flexibility in the future use of acquired properties.
Councillors voted on this proposal – all voted in favour except councillor John Walker who voted against citing that the recommendation on writing to the ministers was too general.
Mayor Robert Mustow explained that details of properties listed under ‘exceptional circumstances’ could not be made public because of privacy issues.