Jilly Witham, Mel Lovell, Helen Haineut: Lismore flood waste causing major headaches for residents

“There was a rats nest under it all in the soil”: Lismore is at 90 per cent clean up but many pockets in the community still have not had their first initial waste removed.

The gruesome discovery of a rat’s nest found under a pile of flood affected waste in South Lismore has residents fuming they are being left behind.

Eight weeks after flood waters swallowed homes and businesses in the Northern Rivers, residents in South Lismore turned to their community to get the job done.

Long term South Lismore resident, 70 year-old Jilly Witham said although she was grateful for the “wonderful, fabulous help” she received in removing flood affected waste from her house, it has saddened her that there are still two refrigerators and a large pile of flood affected waste on her property.

“Two days before public works came into our laneway to collect it somebody put a little pile of asbestos beside my pile and so they wouldn’t take it,” Ms Witham said.

“They wouldn’t take my pile on the day which was a very big pile because I had a cabin in the back yard and I have a laundry shed that collapsed, plus I don’t have a fence so lots of stuff came in.

“I’ve since been stuck with it and the trucks seem to have stopped over Easter.”

When Ms Witham didn’t see any action from her submission to Lismore council’s asbestos team she rang council to be told it was now a Service NSW job and she needed to fill out an online application with them.

“I filled out the online form and that night at 9.30pm I got an automated text telling me I was ineligible for assistance,” Ms Witham said.

Grieved about being “fobbed off” Ms Witham took to community social media pages for help.

Her post generated many similar stories of waste left to rot and areas where asbestos had been taped off, people were dumping more rubbish on top.

“All the ‘hoo-hah’ over the asbestos was ridiculous,” Ms Witham said, “And council put my name on a spreadsheet to collect it but didn’t, they told me to go to public works.

“(A man) from public works told me that council’s asbestos people would treat the whole pile of rubbish as asbestos, and I said you’ve got to be kidding, look at the size of it.

Jilly Witham said she is still on the merry-go-round trying to have her first lot of flood damaged waste removed from her property, eight weeks since floodwater engulfed her home. Picture Cath Piltz

“I was crying over the rubbish, there was so much of it,” she said.

A phone call came early Thursday morning from a different man in emergency services who told her the rubbish would be collected when they could get to it.

“I asked him how he found out about me, did he see my online form I filled out and he said yes so I told him I got a text at 9.30 last night telling me I was ineligible.

“He knew nothing about that, the automatic text.”

Ms Witham is not alone.

Left: South Lismore residents Jilly Witham, Mel Lovell and Helen Haineut have all had trouble getting flood affected waste from their properties. Picture Cath Piltz

Helene Haineut’s home backs onto the laneway behind Ms Witham’s property and said she has asbestos still waiting to be collected from the front of her property on Phyllis Street.

“We notified council and the asbestos people in week two and it’s still there,” Ms Haineut said.

“My brother lives in the same street and has a small amount that hasn’t been collected.”

Ms Haineut said the ADF were great helping get waste out of their homes yet as soon as they mentioned there ‘may be’ asbestos they bailed.

“The ADF were helping here and at my brother’s house and as soon as we mentioned that one of the rooms may have asbestos because we didn’t know and were leaving that room alone, they said “No! We’re out!” They dropped tools and left,” Ms Haineut said.

Private contractors told Ms Witham she could not remove asbestos herself and said asbestos trucks would treat the whole pile as asbestos affected.

“Even though the asbestos was dumped there by another person,” Ms Witham said, “Crazy thing is it was divided by the two fridges.

“I went to sleep and had to clear my mind of it all to actually fall asleep, then woke up and the rubbish pile was in my head again.”

The most distressing thing she said was being fobbed off each time she reached out to council.

“It’s turned into a real catch 22,” she said.

“When I saw that the Alstonville tip area had closed this week, I knew we were in trouble with the languishing piles.”

Residents said they are concerned about their initial waste being removed, and whether council will collect second piles.

Rats nesting in insufficiently collected garbage can spread disease, a real concern for flood stricken Northern Rivers. Picture APT

“Some people are still cleaning out houses as well.

“It was impossible for us to take the backyard stuff to the front … and then when my laundry shed was demolished … it too, added to the pile.”

Like other South Lismore residents, moving piles of flood affected waste to their kerb was a daunting task.

“The ADF did come here but as soon as the ‘a’ word was mentioned they left,” Ms Witham said.

She said she would have liked the waste to be put out onto Kyogle Street but it was too heavy for her to move, her walkways packed with timber pallets and five cubic metres of road base that she is trying to rake out over the wettest areas of her property.

“I’m very upset about it,” she said.

“As if living in a filthy house with no ceilings and dirty floors isn’t enough. To miss out on the big clean-up is super distressing.”

Three days after Ms Witham posted her plight on social media a group of four volunteers showed up to help her clean out her pile.

Residents from nearby Webster Street moved fridges, timber, and waste still stuck in the mud to the front kerb on Kyogle Street, unearthing a rat’s nest in the process.

Piles of flood affected waste are still awaiting collection in parts of South Lismore. Picture submitted.

“There was a rat’s nest under it all in the soil,” Ms Witham said, “Geoff kindly took care of that problem.

“This crew achieved in two hours, what the local council affiliated with public works, could not achieve because of dumb red tape,” Ms Witham said.

Lismore City council said in their last disaster recovery update dated 28 March that asbestos will be collected from properties from Monday, 28 March by licensed asbestos removalists.

It advised that premises must register with Council’s Contact Centre on 6625 0500 to arrange removal, and that collection may take four to six weeks.