Councillors endorsed the exhibition unanimously on 22 October (resolution 221026/23, moved by Cr Erin Karsten, seconded by Cr Eva Ramsey). It joins the Alstonville and Wardell studies sent out in September, and all three are open for comment together on the council’s Your Say site.
What the study is about
This is not the Richmond River or the ocean. The study covers flooding from short-duration rain inside the town, when runoff exceeds what the drains can carry and water runs across roads, reserves and yards. The council’s report says western Lennox Head can also flood from North Creek, which the Ballina Flood Study Update 2023 already maps, and that low-lying coastal areas face storm surge, which the Coastal Management Program is examining separately.
The consultants, Water Modelling Solutions, checked their model against the March 2022 flood, which the report says hit the study area harder than the February 2022 event, using information residents supplied. The council received 33 questionnaire responses from Lennox Head. Because beach sand can block the town’s ocean outlets, the model was also run with outlets clear, half blocked and fully blocked.
The five hot spots
| Hot spot | Streets | The problem, per the study |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daintree Drive, Byron Street, Byron Bay Road, Lakefield Avenue and Cooloola Avenue | Trunk drainage too small |
| 2 | Dodge Lane, Megan Crescent, Gibbon Street | Minor drainage too small, no overland flow paths |
| 3 | Pacific Parade, Barrett Drive, Gibbon Street | Major overland flow paths too small |
| 4 | Park Lane, Ballina Street, Aurora Place, Tresise Place, Rutherford Street, Sunrise Crescent | Trunk drainage too small, no overland flow paths |
| 5 | Hutley Drive and Caloola Road | Trunk drainage too small |
The fixes, and their order
Eight options were tested. Each carries a benefit cost ratio: above 1 means the estimated reduction in flood damage exceeds the cost of the work.
| Priority | Work | Cost | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | Mobile tractor-driven pump at Tresise Place (hot spot 4) | $390,000 | 6.15 |
| High | Pipe extension to the trunk drainage outlets at Tresise Place and Rutherford Street (hot spot 4): investigation and design, then construction | $1.4 million to build | 2.12 |
| Medium | Duplicate the Byron Bay Road culverts (hot spot 1) | $2.7 million | 1.11 |
| Low | Permanent pump station at Tresise Place and Rutherford Street (hot spot 4) | $2.8 million | 0.16 |
| Very low | New trunk drainage line, Williams Reserve to Tresise Place (hot spot 4) | $2.3 million | 1.65 |
| Very low | Duplicate the Megan Crescent drainage line (hot spot 2) | $1.2 million | 2.34 |
| Very low | Byron Bay Road culverts plus duplicate Byron Street culverts (hot spot 1) | $4.3 million | 0.68 |
| Very low | Byron Bay Road culverts plus a bridge replacing the Byron Street culverts (hot spot 1) | $5.8 million | 0.51 |
Three other high-priority items carry no capital cost in the table: revising floor-level and development controls for overland flooding, reviewing flood warnings with the NSW SES, and community awareness using the new maps.
The ranking is not by ratio alone. Duplicating the Megan Crescent line scores 2.34, better
than anything except the mobile pump, and is ranked very low; the report says priority also
weighs feasibility, operations, environmental and land constraints and dependencies on other
works. It also says the plan does not represent a commitment by Council to fund or
construct the identified works
, and that the costs and ratios are preliminary.
Why it matters if you are building
The council’s report says it does not currently have adopted overland flood
mapping for Lennox Head
, so the draft maps are new information for assessing
development applications, especially infill in older streets where overland flow paths are
inadequate or absent. Adopting the study would not change the development control plan or
stormwater standards by itself; any new overland flooding controls would be considered
separately, after the studies are finalised. The draft includes a mapped overland flow path
overlay for the 1% annual exceedance probability event, a flood with a one in 100 chance of
occurring in any year.
How to comment
- Submissions close 27 November 2026, through the Lennox Head feedback form on the council’s Your Say page. Each of the three towns has its own form.
- Information session: Lennox Head Community Hall (Epiq), Wednesday 18 November, 5pm to 7pm. Wardell’s is on 9 November and Wollongbar’s on 11 November.
- The draft report is in two volumes on the same page: a 9.79 MB technical report and a 125 MB volume of appendices and maps.
The project page says the final studies are scheduled for January to February 2027. The three studies cost $210,000 in all, funded two to one by the NSW Floodplain Management Program and the council.
How we sourced this
The hot spots, options, costs, ratios, priorities and planning context are from the officers’ report at item 10.1 of the agenda for Ballina Shire Council’s 22 October 2026 Ordinary meeting, which summarises the study’s Table 12.6. The resolution, mover, seconder and vote are from the unconfirmed minutes of that meeting. The closing date, information sessions, document sizes and timetable are from the council’s Your Say project page, read on 29 October 2026. We have not read the technical report or the maps themselves, so we cannot say which individual properties the mapping affects; check your own street in Volume 2. We have not contacted the council.
Sources
The working. AI read the documents and drafted this story, under rules people set and answer for, working from the primary sources below. How we work.
- Ballina Shire Council, Agenda and business papers, Ordinary Meeting, 22 October 2026 (PDF, 141 pages, read 23 and 29 October 2026): item 10.1, Overland Flood Study - Lennox Head, including Table 1, the implementation plan.
- Ballina Shire Council, Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting, 22 October 2026 (PDF, 21 pages, unconfirmed, read 23 October 2026): resolution 221026/23.
- Ballina Shire Council, Overland Flood Study, Your Say Ballina project page (read 29 October 2026): exhibition status, key dates, information sessions, the study documents and the project lifecycle.
Live in one of the hot spots, or read the mapping differently? Tell us and we will check it against the council’s own papers and log the outcome.