The floods of 2022 treated South Lismore's homes with ruthless equality: homes perched high on stilts and those resting on slabs on the ground were all swallowed by several metres of water, forcing residents onto roofs and into attics to await rescue.
Now, for some of the residents who survived that flood, the path out of danger seems frustratingly random, and unfair. Leone Baxter stands on the road outside her South Lismore home and gestures at her neighbours' homes to illustrate the confusion about whose homes are bought by the state, raised higher on stilts, or "retrofitted" with flood-resistant materials in a $700 million government scheme.
"The house with the silver roof, it's been offered a raise, or a retrofit, or a relocate. The house next door to that has been offered a buyback. The house next door to that has been refused. And the house directly next door to me has been offered a lift or a retrofit," she says.
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