‘Worst water in NSW’: Community’s plea to save toxic river

A coordinator will be appointed by the NSW government to lead the recovery effort of the degraded Richmond River in the state’s far north.

The Richmond River has been rated to have some of the worst water quality in the state, choked with a blanket of toxic black mud and devoid of its once-thriving oyster and prawn industries.

The Richmond River Coordinator will lead “day-to-day coordination” of the ongoing clean up and recovery effort, working with government, local partners and stakeholders to align existing projects, priorities and funding, NSW water minister Rose Jackson announced this week.

The two-year trial could go on to inform how waterways are managed across the state.

The announcement also included $500,000 in funding to rehabilitate the Tuckean Swamp, a coastal floodplain plagued by poor water quality and mass fish kills due to historical land use and the installation of floodplain drainage infrastructure.

“At last we’ve got somebody listening,” Ballina mayor Sharon Cadwallader told nine.com.au.

“We don’t need extra layers of bureaucracy but... something’s got to be better than what we’ve got.

“We’ve had enough lip service, it’s time for action.

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Locals take fight to save ‘dying’ Richmond River to state government

“Is it going to be the be-all and end-all? I don’t expect it will be, because whatever happens is going to need funding to back it.”

Cadwallader said she didn’t expect miracles within the trial’s two-year time frame but she expected to see action taken.

“We’ve got a loud voice and we’re not going to let this go,” she said.

“We’ve got to keep advocating for what we so rightly deserve.”

Greens MP and former environmental lawyer Sue Higginson said in a statement the announcement falls short of the “genuine investment” the river and community needs.

“When I first called for a catchment commissioner in 2018, the case had already been made that we desperately needed a statutory Richmond River Commission and Commissioner with full independence, a legislative mandate, and sustained funding to lead the long-term recovery of the river,” Higginson said.

“Today’s announcement is not that.”

She said she welcomed aspects of the plan, including the restoration of the Tuckean Swamp, but feared it risked creating a “new bureaucracy” that would not meaningfully help the river or the community.

Local author Graeme Gibson, who had campaigned for the appointment of a Richmond River Commissioner, is cautiously optimistic.

“It sounds really good, but let’s see what happens, we need the detail,” Gibson said.

“Whether it’s a commissioner or a coordinator or whatever it is, the label doesn’t really matter, but we did ask for some sort of legislative responsibility to improve the health of the river, and that’s not included,” Gibson said.

He said engaging private landowners across the catchment would be a challenge.

“Not all of the private landholders will be excited with the idea of a coordinator,” Gibson said.

“Dialogue between people is really, really important, and being able to talk to people who are not in favour of the idea, who think it’s going to be an intrusion on the way they farm, or whatever they do, and having conversations with those people will be really difficult, but I think really important.

“A healthy river is a public good, like schools and hospitals and it’s deserving of broad community support, and I reckon it will get that now.”

Experts and locals largely agree the river has suffered from “piecemeal” approaches that do not consider the whole catchment.

NSW water minister Rose Jackson said the river was “uniquely placed” as a trial of how Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) could improve the health of waterways across the state.

“By bringing all efforts together in a coordinated way, we hope to provide evidence to assist in the application of an integrated catchment management approach in other NSW catchments.”