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.
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:
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.
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, community consultation forums will take place over 31 July - 8 August 2025. These sessions will give community members living in the Richmond River catchment a chance to:
At this stage, no final decisions about the mitigation scenarios are being made. The views gathered at these sessions will be considered by CSIRO. They will look at what interventions could be modelled using the hydrodynamic model. This consultation is an important opportunity to hear and consider all perspectives.
Find your nearest forum and register.
If you’re unable to attend in person, you can still have your say online. Register your interest and we’ll contact you once the online submission pathway is available on 31 July 2025.
Following consultation, CSIRO will analyse the flood mitigation options. This includes those put forward by Richmond River catchment councils and the community. The analysis will focus on feasibility and benefit to community.
Options will then be short-listed and grouped together to create scenarios. Each scenario may include several flood mitigation options.
These scenarios will then be shared back with the four councils in the Richmond River catchment as well as the NSW Government for discussion and agreement.