Lismore Workers Overwhelmed with Support After Re-Opening

Locals had only recently got back on their feet, following Cyclone Debbie wiping the town apart just five years earlier.

Lismore and District Workers Club was severely affected by both events, with the latter disaster resulting in the Club being forced to shut down for two-and-a-half years.

On 23 September 2024, the Club opened its doors once again, with 50 new staff hired to welcome patrons through. 

The day was declared a “soft opening”, with no ribbon cutting ceremonies or grand opening event advertised, with the Club wanting to determine if any initial teething issues required fixing. 

Despite little fanfare, the response from locals was beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. 

“We signed up 100 new members alone, today will be another 100. We normally get about 200 a month,” says Club General Manager Stephen Bortolin.

“We were overwhelmed [on opening day], and even with operational and technical issues the members and guests were surprised how amazing the new facilities and décor looked. 

“Our staff managed reasonably well with the sheer capacity of the people that came in. We just didn't imagine that this amount of people would come to support us the whole day.”

Stephen says he’s particularly pleased with the uptick of members, which he hopes will continue in an upward trajectory.

“Before the Club flooded, we had around 13,000 members,” he says. 

“Since the flood in 2022, membership slowly dwindled to 7000, where it sits today, because the Club could not offer the facilities it had before the flood and there was no incentive for them to remain members.

“However, we are confident that membership numbers should be back to normal very quickly now the new facilities are open and entertainment is back.”

With members returning in their droves, functions and events bookings are also being pencilled in quickly.

“We are completely booked out to early to mid-next year for functions, corporate events, entertainment and meetings,” says Stephen.

Given the natural disasters of recent years, the town is always on alert for future flooding events, and the Club is prepared should rising water levels return.

“Another flood will inevitably happen again,” says Stephen. 

“But the Club has re-built higher and if it does flood it won’t severely impact the facilities like in the past. The lower floor is completely gone and not rebuilt. The rebuild was all done on the higher levels of the premises.”

For now, the Club is focused on ironing out any teething issues and training their new staff.

“Most of the staff are all new and very raw, and still learning and getting used to the new operations and facilities,” says Stephen.

“We are confident it will settle down in the coming weeks.”