The Northern Rivers Resilience Initiative (NRRI) is being led by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in partnership with us. 

The $11.4 million initiative is focused on understanding climate, catchment and hydrological drivers in the area. It also aims to find evidence-based ways to reduce flooding in the Richmond River catchment. 

Progress

The first report was the Rapid Prioritisation for Flood Resilience. These results informed which projects received funding under the Australian Government’s $150 million Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program. 

Under phase two, CSIRO has mapped the: 

• Richmond and Tweed rivers and parts of the Brunswick River, and
• the landscape of the entire Northern Rivers region. 

On 28 June 2024, all of this data was made publicly available through GeoScience Australia’s Elvis website. 

Further information on the NRRI is available on CSIRO’s website. 

Hydrodynamic model

As part of the Australian Government’s commitment to reducing disaster risk and building resilience in the Northern Rivers, the hydrodynamic model and report (PDF 17.1MB) for the Richmond River catchment has now been finalised. The details on how it was developed and validated are publicly available. 

The model will support the next step in this project. This involves the identification and assessment of a range of potential flood mitigation options in the Richmond River catchment. 

To support this process, we will be holding community consultation forums. More information on these forums will be available soon.

Timeline