NEMA 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 Northern Rivers area of NSW. It also aims to find evidence-based ways to reduce flooding in the Richmond River catchment.
CSIRO undertook research and community consultations that fed into 2 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.
Phase two involves developing a hydrodynamic model to show how water moves and pools across the Richmond River catchment during a flood event.
This phase is currently underway with the following activities completed so far:
| June 2024 | CSIRO released LiDAR and river bathymetry data on GeoScience Australia’s Elvis website. This mapping data provided essential inputs for the detailed hydrodynamic model. |
| 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. |
| July–August 2025 | NEMA and CSIRO consulted the community on flood mitigation measures for the Richmond River catchment. |
| September 2025 | Findings from the consultation process were shared back with the community. |
| October 2025 | The Minister for Emergency Management approved the final scenarios for modelling (PDF 2.2MB). The bundles were then shared with the NSW Minister for Recovery, with the Minister providing written support for the bundles in November 2025. |
| November 2025 | CSIRO is now modelling the approved scenarios with the results of this process, along with recommendations, due in June 2026. |
To help identify flood mitigation measures, community consultations took place from 31 July to 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 hear directly from CSIRO about the model and its findings, ask questions and engage with technical experts and provide input on possible flood mitigation measures (PDF 5.47MB).
CSIRO then analysed the information collected through the community consultation process and developed 2 bundles of flood mitigation measures to test under the 2008, 2017 and 2022 climatic conditions using the hydrodynamic model.
The potential flood mitigation measures to be explored as part of the scenario testing phase of NRRI (PDF 2.59MB) and shortlisted flood mitigation measures from community and council engagements (PDF 578KB) was shared back with the local community at drop-in sessions on 22–24 September 2025.
Following feedback provided by the community, CSIRO made some minor amendments to the proposed bundles before they were progressed for approval.
These amendments were:
The proposed Upper Nimbin Detention has been removed, and Dunoon Detention has been added (and was originally only proposed in Bundle Two).
| 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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| Testing of the flood mitigation scenarios through the hydrodynamic model is underway November 2025 |
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| Release of final report and recommendations on future flood mitigation options for the Richmond River catchment June 2026 |