Richmond River Town Hall calls for Richmond River Commissioner
A town hall meeting calling for action on the Richmond River saw nearly 100 Northern Rivers residents gather at the Lismore Regional Gallery on Saturday to call for Government action on river health in the Richmond River catchment.
The event, held during Riverfest 2025, hosted by Greens MP Sue Higginson, saw presentations from Richmond Landcare’s Louissa Rogers, OzFish’s Ashley Castle, Widjabul Wa-bal native title holder Tracey King, Kayak 4 Earth and Tinny Trip participant Steve Posselt, Richmond Riverkeeper Founding Member Kristin den Exter, and Rous County Councillor Elia Hauge.
Sue Higginson will be collaborating with native title holders, stakeholders and community members to release an update of the Revive the Richmond River plan in the coming weeks.
Greens MP, spokesperson for the environment and North Coast and Lismore local Sue Higginson said “We all know too well that our river, the Richmond, is one of the sickest rivers in the Country, and that years of neglect and continuous harm have resulted in mass fish kills, the demise of industry and recreation, the destruction of nature and culture and the near-extinction of species,”
“It was very inspiring that so many people came together to commit to our community’s clear vision to revive the Richmond River catchment so that our river is drinkable, swimmable and fishable once again,”
“In 2019 we first laid down a plan to Revive the Richmond River and it was welcomed by so many at the time as inspiring, hopeful and desperately necessary. It is so good to learn that initiatives in the Plan have been taken up by others and are coalescing as our community demands for greater action to rescue and revive the Richmond River,”
“There was a lot of knowledge and expertise in the room. We were able to capture that knowledge with a focus on the solutions to revive the river through riparian restoration, the reintroduction of oyster reefs, soft-engineered nature-based solutions and the techniques and strategies the people of the Bundjalung Nation used to protect the river for centuries,”
“The community identified the desperate need for a single overarching governing authority that has the purpose, powers and resources to prioritise and co-ordinate reviving the Richmond River. The catchment is some 7000 square kilometres, covers four Local Government Areas and involves a County Council responsible for water supply. Both the State Government and Federal Government and a number of different Native Title holders and Local Aboriginal Land Councils exercise legal and cultural responsibilities throughout the catchment and over the River. Then there are a plethora of community organisations who have interests and exercise responsibility for various programs across the whole catchment. There is no wonder the need for a Richmond River Commissioner - or something similar - is being called for as an urgent priority now,”
“It was clear that the community is doing so much good work, but we need more political will and focus to put all of the solutions into action. I will now revise and update the 2019 plan to Revive the Richmond River to include the wealth of knowledge in our community so that together we can better prosecute our case for a drinkable, swimmable and fishable river to key decision-makers in the Minns Labor Government,”
“We are so fortunate to have such a self-empowered and mobilised community, we even have the Richmond River Keeper, which is a brilliant initiative, doing excellent work. Riverfest has been incredible so far, but we do need our Governments to step up further, to meet us where we are at and to get more action happening on the ground,”
Water engineer and Rous County Councillor Elia Hauge said:
“It was fantastic to be in a room full of people with the shared love and vision for our ailing River, and to see so much expertise and passion put to use in developing a clear plan for a drinkable, swimmable and fishable river,”
“Some of the proposals that Rous County Council are contemplating for river health now, including agricultural wetland buybacks, were first proposed by the Greens in the 2019 Revive the Richmond River Plan. It’s exciting to see that when the community sets the agenda, decision-makers can be willing to get on board with bold ideas,”
“We are at a critical moment for the health of our Richmond River catchment right now, and we’re faced with both huge risks and huge opportunities. The CSIRO have modelled expensive, unrealistic and hard-engineered solutions for the Richmond River that would devastate river health, devastate the budget bottom-line, and increase the likelihood of fish kills in the River. But the community is forging ahead with sensible nature-based solutions that can absorb water, lessen flood impacts and dramatically restore river health,”
“The climate crisis is only going to increase biodiversity loss and threats to our catchment, so it’s essential that decision-makers come down decisively on the side of the community and the river,” Councillor Hauge said.