Iron Gates is being built. Council reserved the right to appeal and never said what it did with it
Line-marking has started and Iron Gates Drive at Evans Head will close
so construction can begin. Richmond Valley Council announced it on 26 June,
noting the subdivision received development consent from the Land and Environment Court in
July 2024
. Its own news archive tells the fuller story: a development application
exhibited in 2021, refused, appealed by the developer, and then approved by the court over
the planning panel’s refusal. In August 2024 the council reserved its right to appeal
that judgement until 31 October 2024 and said it would keep the community
updated. Between that day and the announcement that construction was starting, it published
nothing further about it.
Update, 16 August 2026. The question this story left open has an answer, and it was in the business papers rather than the news feed. At its ordinary meeting on 22 October 2024 council resolved six votes to one not to appeal, on advice from senior counsel that the four available questions of law had no reasonable prospect of success. We have set out the decision, the advice and the costs. Nothing in the account below has changed.
Iron Gates is among the longest-running planning matters on this coast, and the point of this piece is not to relitigate it. It is to set out what the council itself has told the public, and when, because that record turns out to have a shape worth noticing.
The sequence, from the council’s own announcements
| Date | What council published |
|---|---|
| 8 September 2021 | The Northern Rivers Planning Panel accepts a Clause 55 variation, allowing the application to be amended before determination. The project’s value is over $10 million, which is why the panel rather than the council is the consent authority. |
| 22 September 2021 | The application goes on public exhibition for a month from 24 September, submissions closing 24 October. It has become a Concept Development Application containing two stages, with stage two subject to a further application. |
| 29 September 2022 | Council receives notice that Goldcoral Pty Ltd has appealed to the Land and Environment Court to overturn the refusal. Council is the respondent even though the panel made the decision. |
| July 2024 | The court grants consent. Council does not appear to have published an item at the time; the date comes from its 2026 announcement. |
| 30 August 2024 | Council lodges a Notice of Intention to Appeal, reserving its rights until 31 October 2024 so the incoming elected council can consider the matter. |
| 26 June 2026 | Works to commence. Changed traffic conditions, then the closure of Iron Gates Drive. |
What was actually approved
The August 2024 item is the most informative thing the council has published on this. It
records that the court’s judgement overturned the panel’s refusal and paved the way
for stage one: 121 community title residential lots, a public open space lot,
and a community building which would act as a refuge from bushfire and floods
. Stage two
would need its own application.
That last detail is worth holding onto in a shire that has been through what this one has. The approved plan contains its own refuge.
The gap
A Notice of Intention to Appeal is not an appeal. The council said so explicitly at the
time: it did not commit Richmond Valley Council to proceeding with an appeal
, and
reserved its rights until 31 October 2024
so a briefing could be prepared for the
incoming council on the judgement, its prospects for success and the potential costs to
ratepayers
. The general manager added that council remained committed to transparency
throughout this process and would keep the community updated where the legal process
allowed
.
The council’s news archive carries five Iron Gates items in total. Four of them are listed above from 2021, 2022 and 2024, and the fifth is the June 2026 construction notice. There is nothing published in between. A reader following this on the council’s website would not learn whether the appeal was pursued and lost, discontinued, or simply allowed to lapse on 31 October 2024. The 2026 notice does not mention it at all; it says only that the development is proceeding under the July 2024 consent.
An honest limit on that. Absence from the news feed is not absence from the record. A decision on whether to appeal would ordinarily go to a council meeting, and the agenda or minutes may say so plainly, possibly in closed session given it concerns legal advice and costs. We have not yet read the late-2024 business papers. What we can say is that the council’s public-facing news channel, the one it used for every other step, does not answer it.
What the council says now
The June announcement is about construction management rather than the history. General
Manager Vaughan Macdonald said council is assessing and certifying the development as it
progresses, as it does with all approved residential subdivisions across the Richmond
Valley
, and that its focus is on ensuring compliance with environmental protections,
infrastructure requirements and all conditions of consent throughout the construction
process
. He acknowledged disruption, pointed to the housing benefit, and asked for
residents’ patience.
Our view, labelled as such
Nothing above suggests impropriety by anyone. A developer is entitled to appeal a refusal, a court is entitled to disagree with a planning panel, and a council is entitled to weigh the cost to ratepayers of a further appeal and decide against it. Reserving rights while a new council is briefed is prudent rather than evasive.
The criticism is narrower and it is about follow-through. Having promised to keep the community updated, and having used its news page to announce every earlier step including the decision to reserve its rights, the council then went quiet on the one question its own announcement had opened. The next thing residents heard was that the road was closing. For a matter this contested, in a shire where a bushfire and flood refuge is part of the approval, closing the loop would have cost a paragraph.
How we sourced this
Every date, quotation and figure above comes from Richmond Valley Council’s own published news items, all five of which we read on 3 August 2026. We identified them by listing every Iron Gates item linked from the council’s news index; there are five, and all five are cited below.
What we have not done. We have not read the Land and Environment Court judgement itself, so the description of what it decided is the council’s. We have not read the council’s late-2024 business papers, which is where a resolution about the appeal would most likely appear, and we say so above rather than treating silence on the news page as proof of silence everywhere. We have not sought comment from the council or the developer. Nothing here should be read as suggesting that any party acted improperly; the matter was determined by a court and the development is proceeding under that consent.
Sources
- Richmond Valley Council, Ordinary Council Meeting minutes, 22 October 2024 (PDF, downloaded and read 28 August 2026): item 14.1 Iron Gates Development: Notice of Intention to Appeal, and Resolution 221024/7, which at clause 5 determines not to pursue the matter in the Court of Appeal, and at clause 3 records the legal advice that an appeal under s 57(1) of the Land and Environment Court Act 1979 would not enjoy reasonable prospects of success. The division is recorded as carried 6 to 1, Crs Mustow, Morrissey, Cornish, Hayes, Humphrys and Walker in favour and Cr Murray against. An earlier amendment carried 5 to 2. The file council publishes is still titled as unconfirmed minutes; they were confirmed at the following ordinary meeting by Resolution 191124/1 on 19 November 2024.
- Richmond Valley Council, Iron Gates Development to commence (26 June 2026): that works are starting, the July 2024 consent, the traffic changes and road closure, and the general manager’s statements on certification and compliance.
- Richmond Valley Council, Council lodges Notice of Intention to Appeal Iron Gates decision (30 August 2024): the reservation of appeal rights until 31 October 2024, that it did not commit council to appealing, the composition of stage one including the 121 lots and the refuge building, and the transparency commitment.
- Richmond Valley Council, Iron Gates developer lodges court appeal (29 September 2022): the appeal by Goldcoral Pty Ltd against the refusal, and that council is the respondent.
- Richmond Valley Council, Iron Gates DA on public exhibition (22 September 2021): the exhibition period, the submission deadline, and the two-stage concept application.
- Richmond Valley Council, Planning panel refers Iron Gates DA back to council (8 September 2021): the Clause 55 variation and the over-$10-million value that puts the panel in the consent-authority role.
Live near Iron Gates, or know what happened to the appeal? Tell us and we will check it against the record and log the outcome here.