"He called me up out of the blue and said'I have heard of this Grantham project,'"Mr Simmonds says.
"I showed him around Grantham and he was blown away.'This was done in 12 months with a budget of $18 million? Wow,we are spending three times that in America to do something over eight years.'"
Moving Granthamstarted slowly,haltingly.
After eight weeks of cleaning their homes,clearing away rubbish,farewelling those who had died,residents were feeling flat,Mr Simmonds says.
The Lockyer council had already bought the higher land to shift residents.
"But people were just saying,'We're still cleaning up',or'I'm still waiting for my insurance'. Their heads were filled with other things,the army were still clearing the town,"Mr Simmonds said.
The remedy was transforming the casual,nightly meetings at Grantham State School"where everyone had a feed after cleaning up".
Presentations became formal Grantham master plan workshops where the project team planted"seedlings of hope".
The former chief executive of Brisbane City Council,Jude Munro,was invited to help.
"She was just excellent. She MCed the workshops,"Mr Simmonds said.
"I think we did three workshops in a week and a half. We went to the meetings with something prepared,but left enough room in there so the people could provide their input."
New Grantham inched forward slowly,through land swaps and land ballots. Some built new homes with their insurance payouts. Others chose to shift their older homes to higher ground.
Residents,most of whom were flood affected,took up 86 lots within the first two years.
Mr Simmonds says four things were critical to shifting Grantham:leadership,speed,a locally driven project and a small,agile team.
The media were kept informed.
Lockyer Valley Regional Council chief executive Ian Church said the council bought 378 hectares to build new Grantham.
"It was a blank canvas upon which council,in consultation with planning experts,could develop a master-planned community complete with the essential services,improved road and rail access and social infrastructure,"Mr Church said.
Eighteen million dollars from federal and state governments was used to construct the estate,with work started before the money was received to keep the public faith.
Today,80 families live in the new Grantham on the hill over Lockyer Creek. Grantham's population is stabilising. The2016 census shows 634 people living in town.
In 2007 there were 370. Only 178 responded in Grantham's 2011 census.
Alan Marshall lost his father,Bruce,in Grantham's floods and his house in Harris Street - the old Grantham bakery - was washed off its stumps.
The Marshalls took the land swap when it was offered.
The land swap was based on the size of the block of land,he explains.
"You went into a ballot. You had to pick seven blocks and you got one of seven blocks from it. Most people got their first preference like we did,"he said.
Mr Marshall,a tow truck driver,says nobody wanted to stay on"the flats"around Lockyer and Sandy creeks.
"The only people down there now are the people who got stuck down there. Either their insurance companies or the federal government didn't do too much to help them out,"he said.
"Really,this little establishment up here probably saved Grantham as a town."
Not all families moved to higher ground.
The ground floor of the Godley family's two-storey home on Gatton-Helidon Road was flooded to the ceiling.
Daughter Katherine,then 14,and oldest brother Michael,then 20,stayed upstairs with 10 of their property's animals during the flood.
"We pretty much waited until the water went down and until a four-wheel-drive could get in to the road,"Katherine Godley said.
"And then we swam out to them with all the animals and they took us down to the RSL."
Her mother,Linda,says they would have moved higher but they could not afford it.
"If someone gave me money today and said move up there today we would be up there quick. But the thing is,you had to have money,"she said.
"But because our house was ruled to be structurally standing,we did not get any money. The insurance wouldn't pay. They only gave us a $20,000 gratia payment. Restoring our fences alone cost us $6000.
"We worked out that if we didn't spend a single cent on anything other than essentials,we possibly,maybe,could have got up there. But it would have literally been a house on a piece of dirt. No furniture,no fences,no water,no electricity. They just swapped you the dirt."
Even in death, Steve Jones could not leave Grantham.
On February 26,2016,the hearse carrying his body to a memorial service stalled outside the rebuilt Grantham cafe - the original Singh's Family Cafe - that had washed off its block in the flood.
In 2020,it's called The Floating Cafe. News reports from 2011 adorn the walls. There is a book of photographs documenting the history of the cafe.
The funeral party was heading for the Gatton Sports Complex,where more than 2000 people had gathered to farewell the man who shifted Grantham to higher ground.
In his book,Mr Simmonds,who helped carry Cr Jones'coffin,reflects on the symbolism.
"(It was) one last chance to look at the town that was devastated. One last chance to look at the town that was moved,"he writes.
"Steve's finest hour was right here and we had one last time to reflect on it with Steve right there with us."
Grantham's John and Kathy Mahon would love to speak with Australia's distraught bushfire victims and offer support.
"We would say insurance companies are arseholes,"Mr Mahon said.
"They should not be making it harder for people. They know their houses are gone,their paperwork is gone,but they have accepted their policies,so they should just pay them straight out."
The new Grantham is not the old Grantham,they say.
"It's now a different story,"Mrs Mahon said.
"We know the people in our immediate area.
"But some people who received their blocks of land have sold them and there are new people in the area. Some people built their house,then sold their house and the block and they've moved on."
Barbara Panzram comes every week to visit her son,who built a new home in Grantham Heights.
She worked with Cr Jones for years and lived in Laidley and Gatton for"the last 54 years".
"If it wasn't for Steve Jones,we would not have had this,"Ms Panzram said.
"Without this,Grantham would have died. Grantham needed this. And we needed Steve Jones to get this under way."
Rising from the Flood:Moving the Town of Grantham, by Jamie Simmonds,is available from Avid Reader,orhis website.A book launch will be held at the Withcott Hotel - Steve Jones'local - on April 19.