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“The reason a commercial area existed is that they are near a river, or they are old historical buildings,” he said.
“In that regard, I have never been too fussed about relocating commercial areas.”
Debris sits piled up outside businesses affected by the recent floods in the main town on March 28 in Lismore.Credit:Getty Images
Frightened and flooded residents needed to come before buildings, Mr Simmonds said.
“When people put their kids to bed at night, they want to know they are going to be there in the morning and, for me, relocating residences that are affected needs to be the priority.”
In Grantham, cafes and businesses were not shifted to the new estate.
“They want to be on the main highway, they want to be where people are passing by, so that was never a viable option,” Mr Simmonds said.
Grantham in the January 2011 floods.Credit:Jacky Ghossein
He says planners needed to determine if a buyback or a land-swap relocation was more suited to flood-impacted residents.
“The relocation was chosen in Grantham because the community wanted to stay a community,” he said.
“A bunch of people might have taken off, some might not have and all of a sudden, you have a fraction of the population and then the town just slowly dies.”
Ninety families moved to the new Grantham estate after the Lockyer Valley Regional Council used an $18 million loan from the Bligh government to buy a nearby 378-hectare cattle property on high ground.
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About 390 people lived in Grantham in 2007. In 2016, there were 654.
Residents used the insured value of their old properties to swap them for new properties in a ballot.
Mr Simmonds said the Grantham model did not need to be large-scale, and he has been asked by several state governments for his views on helping flood-shocked communities.
Nothing long-term has been adopted.
Mr Simmonds said there were areas in Goodna and parts of Brisbane where a scaled-down Grantham model could work successfully, under which councils could acquire land swap deals with private developers.
“You don’t necessarily need to relocate 1000 people,” he said.
“You just need to find the ones that are persistently affected and potentially losing their lives.”
He said planners should be looking for blocks of land on higher ground in flood-affected suburbs that could be split to include relocated residents.
“There are ways to do it and I think it is very easy to say it is too hard, or too difficult.
“What is very difficult is pulling people off roofs every five minutes.”