Two years ago today, I was sitting in the roof cavity with water lapping at the roof, waiting for the SES to rescue us. It took the SES 2 days to call me back. By then our neighbour, Sandro had rescued us in his tinnie. I remember it just wouldn’t stop raining & I thought it… pic.twitter.com/3K7IPPes8b
— Eddie Lloyd (@worldzonfire) February 27, 2024
Echo, 10 November 2023:
Member for Ballina Tamara Smith MP is today calling on the NSW Premier and the Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Harris to undertake an urgent and independent review of the NSW government’s decision not to allow the residents of Cabbage Tree Island to return to live on the island after the 2022 floods.
Cabbage Tree Island is a discrete Aboriginal community located on the Richmond River, between Broadwater and Wardell, part of the Bundjalung Nation. At the time of the 2022 floods there were 220 Aboriginal people living on the island. Their homes are rented from Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council, who own and manage the land on behalf of the Aboriginal community.
As Tamara Smith points out, since April 2022 the former Liberal National government, (and since March 2023 the current NSW Labor government) have claimed that they have consulted appropriately with the Cabbage Tree Island community, and that as Aboriginal people it would be the community of Cabbage Tree Island that would be determining their own future.
Promises
Former Premier Dominic Perrottet promised the community of Cabbage Tree Island that they could rebuild their homes on the island and go home. This was also promised by the CEO of Jali Land Council Chris Binge.
However, in a letter to Jali Land Council on 25 August 2023 the NSW Department of Planning and Environment removed the decision from Jali, by saying that the government would not financially support a rebuild on the island for residential purposes.
Last Tuesday, Tamara Smith attended with NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs David Harris and Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin a series of meetings with Cabbage Tree Island community members and other key Aboriginal organisations in the Ballina electorate.
She says it became patently clear that the people who are being dispossessed of their homes – the 24 families – have had almost no voice or agency in the process that saw the government intervene and deny them the option of returning home to the island.
Ms Smith told The Echo, ‘I heard directly from families on Tuesday and over the months since the decision that all but a few of the community want to return home to the island. They have been denied self determination and agency in their own lives and it is unacceptable....
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| Bridge to Cabbage Tree Island. Photo Tree Faerie. |
‘I have seen the Water Technology report that the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs commissioned at the behest of Jali Land Council to investigate options for the families to return to the island and there is a very clear pathway outlined for a return to the island.
‘Why then did the Labor government override Aboriginal self-determination and processes at the 11th hour?’ she asks.
‘I have had reported to me over the last 16 months repeated instances of failures in the consultation processes leading to the decision including only junior bureaucrats representing agencies and ministries throughout the process despite the seriousness of the situation, and the devastating trauma and impact of any decision on the Cabbage Tree Island community,’ said Tamara Smith.
Shameful
‘Why has the Labor government lied to the community and put traumatised people though a long process of so-called consultation only to dictate their fate in the end?
‘It is shameful and a review of the whole process over the last 17 months must be undertaken immediately before it is too late, and to allow for the voices of the residents and community who lived on the island to have their voices heard by government,’ concluded the Ballina MP.....
Read the full article at:
https://www.echo.net.au/2023/11/mp-tamara-smith-calls-for-halt-on-cabbage-tree-island-dispossession/
BACKGROUND
NORTH COAST VOICES:
MONDAY, 4 APRIL 2022
Cabbage Tree Island 2 April - post Northern NSW Floods Feb-March 2022 the island community's homes are in ruin and its families scattered and longing to return home
https://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com/2022/04/cabbage-tree-island-2-april-post.html
MONDAY, 23 OCTOBER 2023
Nineteen long months after record flooding swept across much of the NSW Northern Rivers region and the future of Cabbage Tree Island is still unresolved
https://northcoastvoices.blogspot.com/2023/10/nineteen-long-months-after-record.html
The impacts of disaster mismanagement on a grand scale by the former NSW Coalition Government continues rolling across the Cabbage Tree Island community.
 |
| Cabbage Tree Island on the Richmond River, NSW Google Earth image retrieved 22 October 2023 |
Echo, local news, 19 October 2023:
The fate of the residents of Cabbage Tree Island is still unclear, as stakeholders continue with more meetings and court appearances in the hopes of finding a resolution.
The Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) have clarified that the land title to Cabbage Tree Island is held by Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council, and that the post-flood assessment reports were commissioned by Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) and Aboriginal Affairs NSW.
Jali LALC says that members voted on August 28 to demolish the homes on Cabbage Tree Island.
Aunty Susan Anderson says she owns the land and the houses at Cabbage Tree Island, which was passed down by her grandfather. Photo Tree Faerie
An affidavit submitted to the NSW Land and Environment Court by resident Susan Anderson says that she is one of the senior elders and custodian over the land at Cabbage Tree Island.
She states that it was her grandfather who survived a massacre at Evans Head, and that he and his brother-in-law were granted the land Cabbage Tree island in the 1880s.
She says that in 1983 following the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act, Cabbage Tree Island came into the possession of the newly set up Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council.
‘The land council was supposed to assist the community get decent houses and infrastructure’, she says.
‘The residents, my people, have been treated so appallingly following the mass evacuation at the time of the flood in February 22. They were shuffled all over the place throughout the area, as far as the Gold Coast.
The affidavit says the land council would not consult with them about what was happening, and she says they were bullied, threatened and shouted down.
’In my many years I’ve seen lots of injustice to our people, but this situation is something hard to describe. We are being made refugees in our own land. We are being forced to reside in a temporary pod village while perfectly good houses stand empty.’
Anderson says that the final burden placed upon them was at the meeting on August 28, in which the demolition and no return for residents was pushed through, ‘without any regard to meeting protocol or fairness’.
Aunty Susan’s nephew, Troy Anderson, has been a member of the Jali LALC board for over ten years.
He also submitted an affidavit in which he says that during the motion for demolition, it was obvious that there was no agreement from the membership, who were expressing quite a lot of anxiety and serious sentiments.
‘At this point, the facilitators had no choice, but to close the meeting which they did’.
The matter is yet to be heard in Land and Environment Court. In the meantime, Jali has called an extraordinary meeting for members. The agenda is to either rescind the current motion to demolish the housing on Cabbage Tree Island or to put a new motion to rebuild residential houses on Cabbage Tree Island. They are also seeking to pass a motion to lobby the NSW government to fund the rebuilding of housing on Cabbage Tree Island.
The Echo is yet to receive a response from Jali Land Council with our requests for comments.
It is understood that Jali LALC will be holding that meeting in the auditorium at Ballina RSL later today Monday, 23 October at 5.30pm.
Sometimes it is hard to believe the evidence of one's own eyes when looking at development plans lodged with local councils.
This was one of those times, with property owner Broadwater Riley Pty Ltd ATF The Broadwater Riley Unit Trust and developers The Trustee for Cromack Family Trust and Others having lodged a document DA2023/0100 in December 2022 seeking consent to create 60 Torrens Title residential building lots on land which less than nine months before had been under a record amount of flood water.
The proposed development from the DA. IndyNR, 11 January 2023
IndyNR.com, 27 September 2023:
The first meeting of Rileys Hill residents opposing the development on January 10, 2023.
Resident Jemma Donnelly is thrilled that the development of 60 blocks on Rileys Hill Road will not go ahead.
Richmond Valley Council has refused the development application at 59 Rileys Hill Road, Broadwater.
“This is a fantastic response and shows that Richmond Valley Council has listened and taken into consideration the community’s concerns and has acknowledged the significant risks this proposed development puts on the existing community and the environmental impacts,” Ms Donnelly said.
“This development is not in the public interest and is not suitable for development due to flood risk.”
During the floods in February–March last year, the site was underwater.
The development site was zoned residential in 1972.
The next logical step would be for the council to rezone the land to agricultural, Ms Donnelly said.
“So that the current or next developer does not continue to propose future development.”…..
The developer has a right to appeal the decision within six months.
It should be noted that this refusal by Council also removes any need to clear-fell the remaining roadside tree corridor - a fact that is welcomed by those concerned with the plight of koala in urban areas of north-east NSW.
PICTURED: Nationally recognised local artist Al Stark painted four sentinels overlooking the Clarence River on the pylons under the new Harwood Bridge adjacent to Yamba Road.
“The five-paragraph letter to Lismore City Council was short, dismissive.
The [NSW] Department of Planning and Environment was rejecting the council’s application for a $100,000 grant to improve its flood warning system. The proposed works - new rainfall and river height gauges, CCTV cameras and a “community flood dashboard” - were deemed “premature”.
Three days later, on February 28, the biggest flood in modern Australian history inundated Lismore, and the rest of the Northern Rivers.” [The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 June 2022]
The rainfall event that triggered the 22 February to 15 March 2022 Northern Rivers Flood reached its maximum intensity in less than 24 hours and, 41 climate gauge stations (out of the 108 active climate gauge stations covering the river basins about to flood) as well as 8 flood gauge stations (out of 86 active flood gauge stations covering those same basins) had already or were about to fail.
The most critical of these active station failures occurred in the Richmond, Tweed and Brunswick basins. While the absence of stations in sections of a number of highly variable flow river catchments & sub-catchments, along with the restricted form of official rainfall recording (9am to 9am), meant that blind spots were already built into the flood watch systems operating in the Northern Rivers region.
IMAGES: CSIRO (30 Nov 2022) Lerat, J. et al, “Characterisation of the 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers region”, pp. 2 & 15] Click on images to enlarge
MSM, 23 February 2023:
Warning systems will not be immediately improved under a $50 million plan to better protect the Northern Rivers from floods, despite a scathing CSIRO report finding an urgent need for a better system.
The report released today revealed for the first time the extent of failures in the state’s flood warning system during the February-March floods last year, which killed four people and left thousands of people stranded on their rooftops.
It also recommended the development of a comprehensive flood warning network, as revealed in the Herald this morning, but the government has not included this work in the first stage of projects to be funded on the back of the report. Another $100 million of projects are yet to be announced.
The report found the warning system failures in the Northern Rivers last year had “critical consequences”. They led to river heights being “severely underestimated” and “severely impacted” warning times.
The Wilsons River in Lismore peaked more than three metres higher than initially predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology on February 28 last year, catching the State Emergency Service and other emergency services off guard.
Towns downstream were also devastated over the following days, including Coraki, which was cut off for five days until the army was able to gain access on March 6.
The report, released on Thursday by federal emergency management minister Murray Watt, found that more than 50 gauges that measure rainfall and river heights failed in the Northern Rivers during the February and March floods.
Gaps in the network also meant the authorities did not realise how much rain was falling in some areas, or how high the rivers were running during the event.
“There is an urgent need for more rainfall and river height data to feed BOM’s predictive models and enable SES to disseminate appropriate warnings,” the report said.
“[Gauge failure] has major consequences for providing early warnings during a large flood event.”
Watt released the report in Lismore and outlined the first list of flood mitigation projects to be funded.
The list of projects includes almost $30 million to improve flood pumps in Lismore, $3 million to increase community flood risk awareness, and $3 million to support community-led resilience initiatives.
The state’s rain and river gauges, which inform flood predictions and warnings, are owned by four different government entities.
The CSIRO found this created issues around accountability when they malfunctioned.
“Whilst the cause of each gauge failure is yet to be determined, consistent maintenance of rain and river height gauges is likely to reduce the risk of gauge failure in future flood events,” it said.
“It is recommended that the failures are investigated and equipment is strengthened for future flood events.”
The report identified some of the key failures, including a key rain gauge in the Lismore hinterland that recorded a zero reading throughout the event, despite torrential rain.
“Even if it were functioning properly, it would have recorded an inaccurate reading as it is poorly placed under an overhanging tree,” the report said.
There was also a lack of gauges around Terania Creek, to the north of Lismore, which recorded some of the highest rainfall during the event.
This is despite the fact that, according to the Lismore flood plan, the two previous highest floods in Lismore – in 1954 and 1974 – were associated with very high rainfall over Terania Creek.
This lack of gauges “contributed to the underestimation of the flood peak at Lismore”, while a “lack of gauges in Bungawalbin catchment severely impacted warning times for towns downstream”.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 February 2023:
SES Commissioner Carlene York says the flood warning system for Lismore and the Northern Rivers remains inadequate, one year after a record-breaking disaster killed four people and left thousands homeless.
“It’s not a satisfactory situation, put it that way,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald, agreeing that gaps in the region’s network of rain and river gauges left the city vulnerable.
“Just as we have road traffic cameras so we can see what’s happening on the roads, from the SES point-of-view, we really want these gauges to give us timely information about what’s happening upstream so we can forecast the effects,” York said…..
Since the flood, the SES has permanently positioned five more boats in the Northern Rivers, as well as a high-clearance vehicle that can drive through floodwaters…..
State Labor MP for Lismore Janelle Saffin said the Northern Rivers gauge network should be the first fixed under the $15 million program.
“It needs to be done sooner rather than later,” she said. “I’ve asked that question of senior [state] government – if, God forbid, the 28th of February happened again, what’s the plan?
“I’d like it to be quicker on the gauges. I’m not sure it can be, but I’d certainly like it to be quicker than June 2025.”…..
Lismore Citizens Flood Review Group co-ordinator Beth Trevan said Lismore was still “very vulnerable” to flood and more needed to be done to protect the city.
She said it was worrying it could take another two years to improve the gauge network, but residents upstream were already able to provide information to warn the community before a flood – only SES headquarters did not know how to use it.
“It worries me, as [the SES] take no notice what people in upper reaches are telling them,” she said.
“As long as they’re relying on the BOM and the time it takes for the BOM to get the information from the gauges and put it through their computer systems, it’s never going to work. They need to go back to people.”
The CSIRO report also noted the value of information from property owners upstream…..
NOTE:
CSIRO 30 Nov 2022 report prepared for the National Emergency Management Agency, "Characterisation of the 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers region" can be found at: https://nema.gov.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/Characterisation%20of%20the%202022%20floods%20in%20the%20Northern%20Rivers%20region.pdf
and
CSIRO 30 Nov 2022 report prepared for the National Emergency Management Agency, "Rapid Project Prioritisation for Flood Resilience in the Northern Rivers region" can be found at: https://nema.gov.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/Rapid%20Prioritisation%20for%20Flood%20Resilience%20in%20the%20Northern%20Rivers%20region.pdf
Remembering......
In the little town of Yamba on the Clarence Coast section of the Northern Rivers region we watched in disbelief and horror at what was unfolding to the north of us on the afternoon, evening and night of 28 February 2022 and what first light brought into view on 1 March.
Whilst at the same time in the 24 hours up to 9am on 28 February 274.4mm of rain fell on Yamba township and continued to fall with another 258.2mm up to 9am on 1 March - initially driven by winds gusting up to 81km per hour - before the rain cell shifted position.
This resulted in a mixture of river water and stormwater entering streets and/or properties it had either never entered before or had previously entered at lower water heights. All of which was exacerbated by flood waters still travelling down the Clarence River into the tidal estuary system.
Active climate gauge and flood gauge station failures were not a feature of the town's surprise at this unexpected flooding pattern.
Rather it was a belated realisation of the complete failure of successive local & state governments to give serious consideration to the level of risk associated with the extent and height of largescale land filling, which was now altering how both flood waters and stormwater (unable to be cleared by a drainage system design made inadequate by continuing urban growth) travelled across land within the town precincts. As well as the fact that this change in flood pattern meant more people became cut off from the town's risible evacuation plan & route.
Like the issues with the Northern Rivers flood watch system, the issue of Yamba's changed flood pattern remains unaddressed to date.
⚡️⚡️NEWS FLASH ⚡️⚡️We are just about to hit the 1 year anniversary since the #LismoreFloods & just 1 person has been offered a buyback leaving 6999 people in limbo. My son & I were rescued from partners home (pic below). My partner has not even received a phone call #nswpol #fail pic.twitter.com/duPLUb7bY7
— Eddie Lloyd (@worldzonfire) February 19, 2023
Our rental system relies on landlords and agents being decent folk, yet science shows us otherwise | First Dog on the Moon https://t.co/liSoVVYnBN
— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) February 20, 2023
⚡️⚡️NEWS FLASH ⚡️⚡️We are just about to hit the 1 year anniversary since the #LismoreFloods & just 1 person has been offered a buyback leaving 6999 people in limbo. My son & I were rescued from partners home (pic below). My partner has not even received a phone call #nswpol #fail pic.twitter.com/duPLUb7bY7
— Eddie Lloyd (@worldzonfire) February 19, 2023
The Guardian, 20 February 2023:
In February the hills and valleys of the New South Wales northern rivers are green and lush and fertile in the late summer sun. There is brightness in the madly proliferating tropical flora, radiance in the golden hour of the evening.
In the towns the mud has gone, mostly, and the smell too has faded; a semblance of normality returned to the main streets. As the foliage has returned, the devastation of the 2022 floods is more hidden now; the scale of what happened. The people who are changed.
As the anniversary of the disaster approaches, along with the cyclone season, for those left in the flood’s wake the impact is still unfolding. When the flood waters receded a year ago, for many, the disaster was only beginning.
“You could hazard a guess that something like 15 to 20,000 people were impacted,” says Professor James Bennett Levy from the University of Sydney Centre for Rural Health. “I would say there’s been huge collective trauma as well as individual trauma.”
“If I am doing a community event,” says Naomi Vaotuua, recovery and resilience officer for the Red Cross, “I will literally have grown men crying in my arms because it’s a cloudy day and they thought they were doing alright but they have been triggered.”
Kerry Pritchard, coordinator of recovery Hub 2484 in Murwillumbah, says: “I guess what is surfacing now is more residual complex trauma. We feel like we are still very much in the middle of it, at the coalface of supporting people. That is both in terms of rebuilding in a physical sense and also healing from that traumatic event.”
The northern rivers floods were Australia’s biggest natural disaster since Cyclone Tracy in 1974. It was the second-costliest event in the world for insurers in 2022, and the most expensive disaster in Australian history. Many residents had found premiums unaffordable and had no insurance at all.
The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC), funded by the federal and NSW governments, is currently assessing over 6,000 flood-impacted residences for buyback, raising or retrofit.
A survey released this month by Southern Cross University revealed that nine months after the event, at the end of 2022, almost 52% of flood victims were living in the shells of homes that had flooded; 26% were living in temporary accommodation such as caravans, sheds or pods, or with friends or family; 18% were living in insecure accommodation such as tents or temporary rentals; and 4% were no longer living in the region.
The departure of thousands of locals is one of the things that broke the heart of city councillor and executive director of Resilient Lismore, Elly Bird. “They are disconnected from their community and the people they went through that experience with and disconnected from our recovery journey and support. They are probably having a hard time,” Bird says.
Hanabeth Luke, senior lecturer in science and engineering at Southern Cross University, and one of the researchers behind the survey, said she was “shocked to see the low, low levels of mental health. Twenty percent of people said they were coping with the stresses and challenges of recovery and 60% said they were not coping.”
It is the housing uncertainty causing mental health strain, Luke says; the stress of “not being able to move forward, making do without a clear plan”. People live in substandard dwellings while they wait on government assessments or insurance payouts, not knowing whether to fix a house or if they might get a buyback. People camp out in caravans outside dilapidated abandoned houses, houses they are still paying mortgages and rates for. Families squeeze into a single motel room where they are not allowed to cook or have their pets.
Up until last month, the Koori Kitchen was still serving around around 700 free meals a day at Browns Creek car park in Lismore, says Koori Mail general manager Naomi Moran. It was forced to close as the council wanted the car spaces back to help support local business recovery.
These things take their toll.
“What has been found is that the more you were likely to have been scared of injury or death, the higher the likelihood of PTSD,” says Bennett Levy. “Similarly, the more extensive the inundation the more likelihood of significant mental health issues. If we go back to the data we can say that the people who are displaced from home for more than six months are at very high risk of PTSD.”
Pritchard sees the data borne out in real life. “A year out and people are just worn down, they’re exhausted, they’re losing hope and just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. We’re seeing a lot of suicidal ideation.” People who have always worked hard and supported themselves find themselves having to ask for help, she says. “There are a lot of feelings of shame and impotency around that.”
Those who could afford insurance are now coming to the end of the 52 weeks of temporary accommodation paid for by their insurers. For those locals, there is anxiety about whether they will get into the 11 pod villages built by Resilience NSW across the region. The villages aim to house 1,800 people for up to three years. Another 300 people are still in emergency accommodation…..
Read the full article here.
Southern Cross University, New Southern Cross study reveals ongoing housing and mental health challenges for flood-affected, 7 February 2023:
A new Southern Cross University survey has shown almost 50 per cent of Northern Rivers flood victims were still displaced nine months after the devastating floods and landslides of 2022.
The survey, conducted by Southern Cross researchers in the latter months of last year, aimed to gain a better understanding of the ongoing struggles faced by flood-affected communities. The results paint a stark picture.
Of the 800 survey respondents, 52 percent were back living in a home that had flooded, while 26 per cent were either living in temporary accommodation such as caravans, sheds or pods, or with friends and family. A staggering 18 per cent of people reported they were living in ‘other’ insecure or crisis accommodation such as tents or temporary rentals and four per cent were no longer living in the region.
One fifth of respondents reported it was hard to find out what support was available to them, suggesting insufficient variety in information channels used to communicate with flood-affected residents. Additionally, nearly one third of insured survey respondents reported being ineligible for an insurance payout, and many cited excessive bureaucracy as a major barrier to accessing funding for recovery efforts. Survey respondents had to fill out an average 6-8 forms each to receive any financial assistance.
The Insurance Council of Australia estimates the cost of the 2022 east coast floods to be around AUD $5 billion in insurance damages. The Southern Cross survey results showed that while the most common cost of the flood was between $201,000-$500,000 to each respondent, the most common maximum amount received at the time of completing the survey was a tenth of that, at $21,000-$50,000.
"The findings of this survey are a sobering reminder of the ongoing impact of the floods on the Northern Rivers community," said lead researcher Dr Hanabeth Luke.
“Flooding has affected dozens of rural and urban communities around the country and continues to do so, most recently in Western Australia. There are important learnings from this that can guide us and others to be better prepared next time,” she said.
Elly Bird, Executive Director of Resilient Lismore – a community organisation and partner in the survey – said "just 20 per cent of respondents report they are coping with the stresses and challenges of recovering from the floods, and more than 80 per cent agree that community hubs have been essential to their recovery.
“Nearly 60 per cent of respondents still need help with access to tradespeople, and more than 45 per cent require access to building materials. This is holding up the recovery and needs to be addressed urgently.”
Many respondents reported not ‘being able to plan’ as a significant challenge.
The majority (96 per cent) of survey respondents saw community preparedness as most important for mitigating future events, with engineering solutions receiving a lower level of support than all other options.
"This study is a crucial tool in the ongoing efforts of our community to build back. Tapping into the experiences of those affected will help shape services and streamline processes and hold us in better stead for future events,” said Ms Bird.
Download the survey results here [PDF]
A year on and people still don’t know what the Government is going to do.
— Donatello (@Donatello_Oz) February 20, 2023
The NSW Gov has failed the Northern Rivers.
Due to Northern Rivers flooding in February-March and June 2022, property owners in flood affected locations in Lismore City local government area such as North, South and central Lismore experienced decreases in demand for their lots. As did property owners in flood affected Ocean Shores and Golden Beach in Byron Shire.
"Lismore saw a 23.9% decrease [in commercial land demand] after the 2022 floods significantly impacted the area, with the entire CBD being inundated....Lismore [industrial land] decreased slightly (5.2%) as a two-tier market emerged with premiums being paid for flood free industrial land.....Strong demand continued in Lismore (23.7%) for productive farmlands to the northwest which were not as severely affected by the 2022 floods."
Valuer General of New South Wales, Valuation NSW, Media Release, 19 January 2023:
New land values published for the North Coast region
The NSW Valuer General has published land values for the North Coast region. The land values reflect the value of land only, as at 1 July 2022.
Land value is the value of the land only. It does not include the value of a home or other structure. Property sales are the most important factor valuers consider when determining land values. [my yellow highlighting]
The new land values will be used by Revenue NSW to calculate land tax for the 2023 land tax year. Registered land tax clients will receive their land tax assessment from Revenue NSW from January 2023. More information on land tax can be found at revenue.nsw.gov.au.
Councils receive new land values for rating at least every three years. Land values are one factor used by councils to calculate rates. All councils have been issued with the 1 July 2022 land values.
Landholders will receive a Notice of Valuation showing their land value before it is used by council for rating. Notices will be issued from January 2023. This gives landholders time to consider their land value.
The latest land values for all properties in NSW are available on the Valuer General NSW website, along with information on trends, medians and typical land values for each local government area.
Please visit www.valuergeneral.nsw.gov.au for more information on land values and the NSW valuation system.
North Coast Region local government areas
Ballina, Bellingen, Byron, Clarence Valley, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Kyogle, Lismore, MidCoast, Nambucca, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Richmond Valley and Tweed.
General overview
The total land value for the North Coast NSW region increased by 35.9% between 1 July 2021 and 1 July 2022 from $116 billion to $158 billion.
Residential land values increased 36.8% overall. Demand for rural villages, hinterland and beachside locations continue as sea and tree changers relocate to work remotely. This trend was particularly evident in Coffs Harbour (46.7%), Port Macquarie (38%) and Clarence Valley (46.5%). Lismore (31.5%) saw increased demand in flood free areas including Goonellabah, Lismore Heights and Richmond Hill while flood affected locations such as North, South and central Lismore experienced decreases. Byron (18.2%) varied as decreases in flood affected Ocean Shores and Golden Beach offset increases at Brunswick Heads, Suffolk Park and elevated Pacific Vista Drive, Byron Bay.
Commercial land values increased 24.1% overall. Relative affordability contributed to Bellingen (56.7%) and Clarence Valley (40%) experiencing the strongest increases. In Ballina (14.9%), the flood impacted CBD experienced moderate to slight increases while Lennox Head and Wollongbar increased strongly due to tight supply. Byron (25.2%) increases highlight continued strength in the Byron tourism sector and investor demand. Lismore saw a 23.9% decrease after the 2022 floods significantly impacted the area, with the entire CBD being inundated.
Industrial land values increased by 29.6% overall. Clarence Valley (122.5%) saw heightened demand for a limited supply of affordable fringe industrial land around Grafton and Yamba. Similar supply issues led very strong increases in Kempsey (56.4%), especially South Kempsey precinct, and drove values in affordable fringe locations of Woolgoolga and Macksville which contributed to very strong increases in Coffs Harbour (41.5%) and Nambucca (37.7%). Lismore decreased slightly (5.2%) as a two-tier market emerged with premiums being paid for flood free industrial land.
Rural land values increased 37.4%. Strong commodity prices drove demand for quality agricultural land with reliable water and resulted in increases regionwide, with Port Macquarie-Hastings (54.5%) leading the trend. Relative affordability drove demand in several local government areas including Nambucca (51.4%) and Kempsey (40.3%). Across Byron (26.1%), values remained steady in flood impacted localities including Main Arm and Mullumbimby while purchasers underpinned strong demand for rural homes and hobby farms in areas like Myocum and Bangalow. Strong demand continued in Lismore (23.7%) for productive farmlands to the northwest which were not as severely affected by the 2022 floods.
~~~Ends~~~
