The Watershed Review https://watershedreview.au/ News for the Northern Rivers of NSW: Lismore, Byron, Ballina, Tweed, Richmond Valley and Kyogle. The Watershed Review reads the region's council business papers, flood-recovery program pages, project updates, crop forecasts and datasets end to end, cites what it reads, and reports what it means. en Ballina put three flood maps on exhibition in one night, and they are about the rain rather than the river https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-three-flood-maps-exhibition/ https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-three-flood-maps-exhibition/ Thu, 01 Oct 2026 06:16:11 GMT At its 24 September 2026 Ordinary meeting Ballina Shire Council unanimously endorsed public exhibition of the Draft Alstonville Overland Flood Study, the Draft Wardell Overland Flood Study and the Draft Addendum to Ballina Flood Study Update 2023 covering flood function mapping. The reports explain overland flooding as a separate mechanism from river flooding, cite the March 2022 event, and state that flood function mapping is now required to assess development applications. Byron is not the highest-yielding council on the northern rivers. Ballina is https://watershedreview.au/byron-tourism-and-housing/visitor-economy-yield-four-lgas/ https://watershedreview.au/byron-tourism-and-housing/visitor-economy-yield-four-lgas/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 20:33:33 GMT Byron earns the most tourism money on the northern rivers. Ballina earns more per visitor, per night and per night in commercial accommodation, on the fewest visitors of the four. Ballina adopted a homelessness strategy on 27 August. In the next resolution it asked the state for more police powers to move rough sleepers on https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-homelessness-strategy-police-powers/ https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-homelessness-strategy-police-powers/ Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT Ballina Shire Council's 27 August 2026 meeting adopted a Homelessness Strategy and directed talks with Mary's Place and Orange Sky, then resolved to ask the NSW Government for more funding and for improved police powers to require rough sleepers to vacate public spaces. Ballina Byron is carrying 14.6 per cent more than before COVID. Coffs Harbour is down 36.9 per cent https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/ballina-airport-passenger-movements/ https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/ballina-airport-passenger-movements/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 03:17:00 GMT The Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics publishes passenger movements for every Australian airport above a reporting threshold, back to 1985-86. In 2024-25 Ballina Byron Gateway Airport recorded 612,073 movements, 14.6 per cent above its 2018-19 figure, ranking 18th of the airports listed. Gold Coast recorded 5,374,010, 1.3 per cent below pre-COVID, and Coffs Harbour 250,298, 36.9 per cent below. Ballina's highest year was 632,612 in 2022-23 and its best national rank was 12th in 2020-21. What the Reconstruction Authority is, and what it can actually do here https://watershedreview.au/flood-recovery-and-land/what-is-the-reconstruction-authority/ https://watershedreview.au/flood-recovery-and-land/what-is-the-reconstruction-authority/ Sun, 23 Aug 2026 17:19:00 GMT An explainer on the NSW Reconstruction Authority read from the agency's own published pages: why it was created after the 2022 disasters, the powers it says it holds under the NSW Reconstruction Authority Act 2022 and Regulation 2023, its five areas of work spanning risk reduction and preparedness as well as recovery and reconstruction, and its statement that it facilitates all disaster recovery funding for NSW. Southern Cross just landed the biggest coffee research program Australia has run. The industry it serves is 400 hectares https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/coffee-research-program-scu/ https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/coffee-research-program-scu/ Mon, 17 Aug 2026 22:51:00 GMT Southern Cross University will lead the $4 million Australian Coffee Research Program over five years, alongside AgriFutures Australia, Plant Health Australia, the University of Queensland and the Australian Grown Coffee Association. Australia's coffee industry is about 40 growers on about 400 hectares. Richmond Valley reserved the right to appeal Iron Gates, then let it go. The minutes say why, and what it had already cost https://watershedreview.au/councils/iron-gates-appeal-decision/ https://watershedreview.au/councils/iron-gates-appeal-decision/ Sun, 16 Aug 2026 06:15:00 GMT Richmond Valley Council lodged a notice of intention to appeal the Land and Environment Court's Iron Gates decision in August 2024, reserving its rights to 31 October. At its ordinary meeting on 22 October 2024 it resolved by six votes to one not to proceed, citing advice from J E Lazarus SC that an appeal on the four identified questions of law would not enjoy reasonable prospects of success. The council's direct costs in the court matter exceeded $350,000 plus $80,000 in staff time. Byron's difference from its neighbours is almost entirely international, and it is fifteen years old https://watershedreview.au/byron-tourism-and-housing/byron-international-visitor-gap/ https://watershedreview.au/byron-tourism-and-housing/byron-international-visitor-gap/ Thu, 06 Aug 2026 07:20:00 GMT Visitor-night data for Ballina, Byron, Clarence Valley and Tweed placed side by side across fifteen years. Byron Shire's domestic visitor nights are close to its neighbours', while its international visitor nights run five to eight times theirs in every year with data. In 2024/25 Byron recorded its highest international figure of the series and Clarence Valley its second lowest. The state is writing its first multi-hazard adaptation plan here, and the values study under it says plainly it is not a representative sample https://watershedreview.au/flood-recovery-and-land/disaster-adaptation-plan-values-study/ https://watershedreview.au/flood-recovery-and-land/disaster-adaptation-plan-values-study/ Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:26:00 GMT The NSW Reconstruction Authority is developing the Northern Rivers' first multi-hazard Disaster Adaptation Plan. The community values study feeding Stage 2 asked 211 people to sort 100 cards into what matters most. The report states those 211 are not a statistically significant sample and not a demographic cross-section of the region. Iron Gates is being built. Council reserved the right to appeal and never said what it did with it https://watershedreview.au/councils/iron-gates-timeline/ https://watershedreview.au/councils/iron-gates-timeline/ Mon, 03 Aug 2026 13:45:00 GMT The Iron Gates subdivision at Evans Head, traced through Richmond Valley Council's own published record from 2021 to 2026. Ballina wants to charge $618 a tonne for asbestos. For a household it works out about $62, and the point is to stop dumping https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-asbestos-disposal-fee/ https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-asbestos-disposal-fee/ Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:35:00 GMT Ballina Shire Council has placed a residential asbestos disposal fee of $618 per tonne on public exhibition, attached to a pilot disposal program at the Ballina Resource Recovery Centre capped at 100kg per customer. Submissions closed 10 August 2026. Ballina exhibited four routes for the Alstonville shared path. It adopted a fifth https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-shared-path-route/ https://watershedreview.au/councils/ballina-shared-path-route/ Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT Ballina Shire Council put four route options for an Alstonville to West Ballina shared path on public exhibition, received 61 responses and a joint submission from 22 landowners objecting to the southern options, then adopted a fifth route that was never exhibited. At $36.5 million it is the most expensive of the five. The region's signature nut is having a strong but jumpy year: the 2026 macadamia crop, revised https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/macadamia-crop-forecast-2026/ https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/macadamia-crop-forecast-2026/ Sat, 25 Jul 2026 01:00:00 GMT The Australian Macadamia Society has revised its 2026 national macadamia crop forecast down to 56,888 tonnes in-shell at 3.5% moisture, off its June crop assessment, from a March forecast of 59,080 tonnes, still well above the 43,800-tonne 2025 final. What the national number means for the Northern Rivers. The region's university rebuilt its timetable around a hard question, and the numbers say it worked: inside the Southern Cross Model https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/southern-cross-model-student-success/ https://watershedreview.au/university-economy-agriculture/southern-cross-model-student-success/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:10:00 GMT Five years in, Southern Cross University's whole-of-university data shows its Southern Cross Model of six-week terms has lifted student success from 74.8 to 91.1 per cent and cut commencing attrition from 35.1 to 19.1 per cent. The $723 million question the Tweed Valley Hospital answered was not beds, it was travel: cancer and cardiac care that used to mean leaving the region https://watershedreview.au/health/tweed-valley-hospital/ https://watershedreview.au/health/tweed-valley-hospital/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:40:00 GMT The $723.3 million Tweed Valley Hospital at Cudgen, opened in May 2024, added more than 190 beds and 12 operating theatres, and brought a new radiotherapy and cancer service and interventional cardiology to the region, reducing the need for 5,000 patients a year to travel outside the region for treatment. Casino has its river crossing back: Richmond Valley Council opens a $3.5 million suspension bridge to replace the one the 2022 floods took https://watershedreview.au/councils/casino-suspension-bridge/ https://watershedreview.au/councils/casino-suspension-bridge/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 07:10:00 GMT Richmond Valley Council has opened a new $3.5 million pedestrian and cyclist suspension bridge in Casino, restoring a river crossing lost when the 2022 floods destroyed a community landmark. It is 160 metres long overall with a 55-metre span, disaster-recovery funded, and reconnects the CBD to Queen Elizabeth Park and the riverside. Byron has the tightest short-stay cap in the state: 60 days a year, against 180 next door in Ballina https://watershedreview.au/byron-tourism-and-housing/byron-short-term-rental-caps/ https://watershedreview.au/byron-tourism-and-housing/byron-short-term-rental-caps/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 06:40:00 GMT Under the NSW planning framework, most of Byron Shire caps non-hosted short-term rentals at 60 days a year, effective 23 September 2024, the tightest in the state, against the 180-day default that applies in the Ballina area, with 365-day precincts kept for the Byron Bay and Brunswick Heads town centres. An idle rail line, now an award-winning trail across four shires: where the Northern Rivers Rail Trail stands https://watershedreview.au/community-environment/northern-rivers-rail-trail/ https://watershedreview.au/community-environment/northern-rivers-rail-trail/ Fri, 24 Jul 2026 06:10:00 GMT The Northern Rivers Rail Trail has two sections open across four shires (Murwillumbah to Crabbes Creek, 24 km, and Casino to Lismore, 29.7 km), won the 2025 NSW Tourism Awards Gold in the Tourist Attraction category, and reports strong early visitor numbers on its own figures, with a Lismore to Bentley section set to open. The Resilient Homes Program is closed to new applications and now runs to 2028, to give flood-hit homeowners time to get the work done https://watershedreview.au/flood-recovery-and-land/resilient-homes-program-to-2028/ https://watershedreview.au/flood-recovery-and-land/resilient-homes-program-to-2028/ Thu, 23 Jul 2026 23:30:00 GMT The NSW Reconstruction Authority's Resilient Homes Program, the buyback, house-raising and retrofit scheme after the 2022 Northern Rivers floods, is closed to new applications and has been extended: scope of works can be submitted up to June 2027 and grant-funded works completed up to December 2028.