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| The Northern Rivers Times, 29 September 2022 Click on image to enlarge |
Lismore City Council (Northern NSW, Australia) "Lismore Growth and Realignment Strategy" 2022 by clarencegirl on Scribd
Lismore City Council (Northern NSW, Australia), "Affordable and Diverse Housing Strategy" Draft 2022 by clarencegirl on Scribd
Northern Rivers Times, 14 April 2022:
A parliamentary committee is calling, for submissions into an inquiry into the response to major flooding across New South Wales recently.
In particular, the inquiry will consider the preparation, coordination and response to the flooding experienced on the North Coast and in Western Sydney.
Committee Chair and Shadow Minister for the North Coast, the Hon Walt Secord MLC, stated: ‘The floods we have seen on the North Coast and in Western Sydney over the last few weeks have been devastating on local communities. A parliamentary inquiry was established to examine concerns raised by local communities about the adequacy of support and resources available to them.’
The Chair continued: “The committee encourages all interested stakeholders, including affected communities, organisations and experts, to share their experiences and views on the response to flooding across the state as this will help us to consider lessons for the future.”
In particular, the committee is seeking views on the:
• preparation, coordination and response by government agencies to the floods
• role, composition and resourcing of key government agencies involved in the flood response
• coordination between various stakeholders including the state government, federal government, local governments, private sector organisations and the community
• public communication, systems and strategies
• implementation of recommendations from inquiries into previous natural disasters
• overall effectiveness of the flood response.
Submissions close 8 May 2022 and can be lodged online.
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The committee will also be reaching out directly to local communities to encourage participation given that many people may be disconnected from the internet or otherwise may not have the resources to make a submission.
The Chair said: “We are aware that people in the most affected regions may be without services and are understandably focusing on rebuilding. For this reason, we are making every effort to liaise with local, state and federal members as well as local community groups to ensure that as many people as possible can contribute to the inquiry if they wish and as they are able.”
The committee will also hold public hearings on the North Coast and in Western Sydney, providing an opportunity for local communities to contribute directly to the inquiry.
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For information on making a submission please see the committee’s website and the terms of reference for the inquiry.
While the personal stories of those directly affected by the floods will be valuable to the inquiry, it is important to note that the purpose of the inquiry is to make recommendations to the government.
If you have a question about how you can make a submission or contribute to the hearings, please contact the committee secretariat on 02 9230 3067 or email floods@parliament.nsw.gov.au.
Select Committee Membership
Chair: Walt Secord, (ALP, LC Member)
Deputy Chair: Mark Banasiak, (SFF, LC Member)
Members:
Scott Barrett, (NAT, LC Member)
Catherine Cusack, (LIB, LC Member)
Cate Faehrmann, Cate (GRNS, LC Member)
Rod Roberts, (PHON, LC Member)
Penny Sharpe, (ALP, LC Member)
Echo, 21 February 2022:
During last week’s Rous County Council (RCC) meeting, Cr Big Rob spoke of contact he had with Professor Stuart White regarding the proposed Dunoon Dam.
Professor White is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS in Sydney where he leads a team of researchers who create change towards sustainable futures through independent, project-based research.
With over twenty years experience in sustainability research, Professor White’s work focuses on achieving sustainability outcomes at least cost for a range of government, industry and community clients across Australia and internationally.
The Echo spoke to Professor White who made a late video submission to Rous that missed the deadline. A representative of Rous said it was too late to be screened in public access and was ‘forwarded to all Councillors on the morning of the Council meeting for their info’. The rep also mistakingly thought the video was a submission from the Northern Rivers Water Alliance who already had a space in Public Access.
Rous County Council meeting
During the meeting Cr Rob did not give Councillors all of the information he received from Professor White.
At the meeting, Cr Rob said: ‘I circulated an email overnight relating to the experts that have been relied on – Professor Stuart White for example. You know, his position was the cost and when I made inquiries with Professor White, he finally agreed that yes, that dam should be considered. So if you take the cost out of it, then his position [is] all options on the table, the dam must be considered because that is one of the options.’
The Echo asked Professor White about his conversation with Cr Rob because Cr Rob’s comments seemed to be at odds with the information Professor White has been giving other interested parties.
‘I have not spoken to Cr Big Rob,’ said Professor White. ‘I only had email correspondence.
‘My position on the Dunoon Dam is clear and I’ve been public about it: it is too expensive, too risky, not useful for the purpose it is intended for, and not needed within the planning horizon. This is before considering the environmental and Aboriginal heritage risks.’
Time to rule out dam
Professor White said that this does not mean the Dunoon Dam, or any supply option should not be considered and investigated alongside other options. ‘It is just that under any reasonable analysis it would be rejected. The proponents have already had a chance to make their case, at great public expense, and my view is that this case has not been made, so it is now reasonable to rule the Dunoon Dam option out.’
‘My understanding of the decision by Rous last year was to reject it primarily due to the Aboriginal heritage considerations, which are of course very important and remain very important.’
The Echo does not know if any Rous Councillors saw this submission before they voted 6 to 2 to put the dam back on the table. [my yellow highlighting]
BACKGROUND
In 2014 Rous County Council (RCC) adopted its Future Water Strategy which recommended detailed investigations to assess the suitability of increased use of groundwater as a new water source, and if groundwater was not suitable, investigate complementary options such as water reuse and desalination.
After completion of this investigation Rous produced the original Future Water Project 2060 which did not prioritise groundwater use, reuse of already available water or building a desalination plant/s.
Instead it chose another option – the 50 gigalitre Dunoon Dam, with the concept design indicating an initial capital cost of approx. $220 million.
“In considering options for the future, Rous County Council conducted extensive assessments to weigh up environment, social and economic impacts. The result of these assessments indicate the Dunoon Dam is the preferred long-term water supply option when compared to demand management and water conservation, groundwater sources and water re-use”.
It is worth noting that the proposed Dunoon Dam would be the second dam on Rocky Creek thus further fragmenting this watercourse. The first water storage is Rocky Creek Dam which will continue to operate if the Dunoon Dam was built. Rocky Creek Dam does not have an outlet structure so it does not provide releases for downstream flows. [NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, 2020]
By 2020 this incredibly flawed second dam plan still relied on the widely discredited ‘offset’ scheme as a workaround for the widespread level of environmental destruction, significant biodiversity & species local population loss and, for the drowning of land sacred to the Widjabul Wia-bal People and the desecration of highly significant cultural sites.
Rous authorized preliminary investigation of the Dunoon Dam project in mid-2020 allocating a $100,000 operating budget.
However, the Widjabul Wia-bal, local residents in Lismore Shire and many people in the three other shires within Rous County Council (Byron, Ballina & Richmond Valley) remained concerned with Rous’ choice – the Future Water Project 2060 Public Exhibition Outcomes revealed that 90% of the 1,298 submissions received by 9 September 2020 expressed concerns about the Dunoon Dam proposal.
In March 2021 Rous was reconsidering its earlier Dunoon Dam decision and by 21 July it had voted 5 to 3 to remove the Dunoon Dam from its Future Water Project 2060. At that time a second public exhibition from 1 April to 24 May 2021, this time of the revised Future Water Project 2060, was put in place which resulted in an RCC digital file of supporting submissions 1,754 pages long and confirmed that voiced public opinion was still against building the Dunoon Dam.
By 16 December 2021 Rous County Council had authorised “the General Manager to cease all work on the Dunoon Dam and provide a report on the orderly exit from Dunoon Dam as an option in the future water project, including revocation of zoning entitlements and disposal of land held for the purpose of the proposed Dunoon Dam”.
There the matter should have rested, but after the December 2021 local government elections there was a changing of the guard at Rous Water and six of the eight current sitting RCC councillors are pro-dam.
This led to the unedifying sight on 16 February 2022, of Rous County Council by a vote of 6 to 2 vote reinserting the Dunoon Dam proposal into the revised Future Water Project 2060. No genuine forewarning of what that first RCC meeting of 2022 would contain, no prior consultation with Widjabul Wia-ba elders on the Item 12.1 motion, no community consultation.
The community scrambled to respond. So on the day RCC did hear objections to Item 12.1 from Hugh Nicholson, a previous Chair of Rous Country Council and Friends of the Koala representative Ros Irwin.
A young Widjabul Wia-ba woman, Skye Roberts, addressed the councillors as a “custodian” of the land. She spoke with conviction, determination and, clearly informed all present that: the proposed dam was sited within the large tract of land between three ancient mountains and that land was “sacred land” to all the Widjabul Wia-ba; this included Channon Gorge, the waters that ran through it and the wider dam site; the stone burial mounds which would be submerged by dam waters were part of the circle of cultural connection between land and people; men’s places & women’s places were on land to be flooded; and that land connects to living culture.
The message she carried for her grandmother and mother fell on predominately deaf ears and it was ‘ugly Australia’ which voted the dam back into future planning on that Wednesday in February.
Rous County Council already has before it the Ainsworth Heritage “Dunoon Dam: Preliminary Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment for Rous Water, May 2013” which can be read in digital form or downloaded from:
https://issuu.com/jwtpublishing/docs/ainsworth-heritage-preliminary-cultural-heritage-i.
It also has before it the SMEC “Dunoon Dam Terrestrial Ecology Impact Assessment, Prepared for Rous Water November 2011”. An assessment of which can be found at:
https://waternorthernrivers.org/ecological-impact/
For a brief summary of some of the technical flaws in the Dunoon Dam preliminary investigation:
Dunoon Dam: 4 Risks & Considerations by Water Expert Professor Stuart White - Feb 2022
