We have partnered with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to deliver the Northern Rivers Resilience Initiative (NRRI).
The $11.4 million initiative focuses 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.
CSIRO undertook research and community consultation to inform two reports. The first report was the Rapid Prioritisation for Flood Resilience. The results informed which projects received funding under the Australian Government’s $150 million Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program.
CSIRO mapped the:
In June 2024, CSIRO released the mapping data on GeoScience Australia’s Elvis website. It provided essential inputs for the detailed hydrodynamic model.
In June 2025, CSIRO finalised the hydrodynamic model for the Richmond River catchment and released a technical report outlining how the model was the developed and validated. CSIRO is now using the model to support the next stage of this project. This involves the identification and assessment of potential flood mitigation measures in the Richmond River catchment.
The final report will be available in June 2026.
To support the identification of flood mitigation measures, community consultation took place from 31 July - 15 August 2025. This included online submissions and face to face sessions. This process gave community members living in the Richmond River catchment a chance to:
CSIRO then analysed the information collected through the community consultation process and developed potential scenarios for modelling. Each scenario was made up of several flood mitigation measures.
Potential flood mitigation measures to be explored as part of the scenario testing phase of NRRI and Shortlisted flood mitigation measures from community and council engagements was shared back with the local community at drop-in sessions from 22 – 24 September.
The scenarios will now be progressed for modelling, and the final report will outline the modelling results.
| NRRI announcement June 2022 |
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| Community consultation on priority flood resilience projects October – November 2022 |
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| Two reports published; characterisation of the 2022 floods and rapid prioritisation of flood resilience projects 30 November 2022 |
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| Due diligence checks undertaken on projects recommended by CSIRO in its rapid prioritisation report December 2022 – January 2023 |
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| Tranche 1 projects announced under the Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program (informed by CSIRO’s rapid prioritisation report) February 2023 |
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| Tranche 2 projects announced under the Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program (informed by CSIRO’s rapid prioritisation report) June 2023 |
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| Data collection activities underway for phase two June 2023 – June 2024 |
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| Public release of LiDAR and bathymetry data June 2024 |
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| Development of the hydrodynamic model for the Richmond River catchment July 2024 – June 2025 |
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| Finalisation of the hydrodynamic model and release of the associated technical report June 2025 |
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| Community consultation on flood mitigation interventions for the Richmond River catchment July – August 2025 |
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| Approval of 6 flood mitigation scenarios for CSIRO to model September – October 2025 |
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| Release of final report and recommendations on future flood mitigation options for the Richmond River catchment June 2026 |