After years of waiting for help, Liam and Rachel are cutting their Lismore home in half and moving to higher ground

‘Sometimes life can throw you mud’: Rachel Rouse and Liam Bolitho are preparing to relocate their North Lismore home. Photograph: Elise Derwin

Over the next month, Liam Bolitho and Rachel Rouse will remove decking, disconnect their electricity and air conditioners and clear the space underneath their North Lismore home.

In July, contractors will chainsaw the couple’s home of 10 years in half and load it into trucks. Then they will take the house – among more than 4,000 assessed as uninhabitable after 2022’s devastating floods – to a plot of land above the flood level.