After two weeks of trauma and uncertainty, the children of flood-devastated Cabbage Tree Island have returned to class at a temporary school in Ballina.
All 180 residents of the Aboriginal community on Bundjalung Country in northern New South Wales have been displaced after floodwaters inundated the island with sewage-contaminated water and sludge.
Bundjalung woman and Cabbage Tree Island resident Danielle Ferguson and her four children are staying at a motel in Ballina.
"My babies want to come home, they miss their toys and their school — It's just up the road," Ms Ferguson told the ABC on Cabbage Tree Island.
"They are going to do a school in Ballina for Cabbage Tree kids, they start Monday, so that's good."
Ms Ferguson is relieved there is talk that the beloved Cabbage Tree Island Public School, which residents and staff call the "heart of the community", will be rebuilt.
The 33 students and eight preschooler children returned to class at the temporary location of Southern Cross School of Distance Education this week.
Githabul woman Dyonne Anderson has been the Cabbage Tree Island Public School principal for 17 years and said the community would survive this catastrophe.
"The school is where everyone has a connection," Ms Anderson says.
"It's been a special place within the community for the last 129 years.
'Flood mud' crisis looms
Residents slugging it out in the clean-up effort in Lismore and the surrounding Northern Rivers areas are worried about the health impacts from the so-called "flood mud".
Dr Emily Walker a GP in the area said patients are presenting with all sorts of skin ulcerations, tummy bugs, dehydration and anxiety issues.
"There's a bit of gastro about and things like Hepatitis A that we don't normally see," Dr Walker said.
"It's because there was sewage and dead animals and things mixed in with the floodwaters.
"It has led to unusual types of infections and we're having to use quite broad-spectrum antibiotics to get on top of things."
Several of South Lismore resident Bianca Pope's family members have been hospitalised with severe tummy bugs after working in the mud to clean out their homes and ingesting flood water that had sewage in it.
"They had to go to hospital, it got very bad.
"We just said to ourselves 'look, we have to be more careful when dealing with this mud.'"
Health professionals and locals are now worried the new more contagious strain of the Omicron COVID-19 variant is about to surge in a town that's already seen so much heartache.
Ms Pope was bracing for a surge in COVID-19 after so many volunteers from out of town stepped in to help.
"We have such an older population here in South Lismore," she said.
"I'm scared if we get a COVID surge it'll take out our older population."
Dr Walker agrees and is expecting a spike in case numbers.
"I think there's already been a few cases in some of the evacuation centres.
'This is Sorry Business'
Flood-affected residents in northern NSW have come together to pause, reflect and celebrate resilience and survival.
Australia's national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander newspaper, the Koori Mail, hosted a block party on Saturday for the whole community to finally take a break, have a yarn and start the healing journey.
The paper's general manager, Nyangbal woman Naomi Moran, lost the entire Koori Mail offices to floodwater but has been a leader during the recovery effort in Lismore.
"Part of being strong and resilient is also allowing joy back into your life when there's tough times and it's like, Sorry Business here," she said at the event, which hosted a food and household supplies drive, live music, meditations and medical support.
"Our people have been removed from their traditional lands; they've lost their homes on their traditional lands."
Widjabul Wia Bul and Githabul man Ricky Roberts Close is an Aboriginal ranger in the Lismore area and offered a cultural perspective on how the community might choose to learn from this disaster.
"I was brought up on the river," he said.
"Was my walkin' way.
"I don't blame the river for the flood, mother nature is telling us 'look after the planet.'"
