Some, such as lifelong friends Dirk Skelton and Trish Bowie, are being moved to new pods in Lismore. The pair were living together in a shared rental, relying on generators and solar power for electricity, which became too damaged to live in after the floods.
They say they have been unable to find a private rental, which is their ultimate goal.
“We were quite happy with [the pods], appreciative of the generally good experience – though I’ve said right from the start [that] I don’t want to be here because it looks like a refugee camp,” Skelton said.
Bowie said the stress caused by the impending closure of the village has had a significant impact on her mental health, and she worries about the stress on others in her village who experienced the worst of the floods.
“There were people in the village who were drowning in Lismore and were saved by the ‘tinnie army’. They were traumatised.”
The Wollongbar temporary housing village was the first to close, in March. The six remaining villages will remain open until December 2026.
A spokesperson for the NSW Reconstruction Authority said it is assessing potential options for future use of the pods, “including if the pods could be used to support broader NSW government housing objectives”.
Residents and longtime friends Trish Bowie and Dirk Skelton outside a Bayside village pod at Brunswick Heads. The village will close in July.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Homes NSW is offering grants to households moving out of the villages for up to $3000 to help with relocation costs.
Some in the community are happy to see the villages go.
Peter Tanner, of the Bayside Residents Association, said the land hosting the Bayside pod village is needed as community green space, especially with an impending development bringing more than 100 new homes to the area.
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He said locals have had a good relationship with pod residents, but it was always designed to be temporary and keeping the impromptu village would be unfair to existing residents.
“We’re disturbed that the local mayor is saying that she wants the pods to remain … we want to turn that into a community meeting space,” Tanner said.
The closures come as NSW faces a major clean-up from record-breaking floods in the Mid North Coast and Hunter. At least 30 homes were destroyed and more than 1000 deemed uninhabitable.
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