Richmond Landcare Supports Call to Establish a Richmond River Commissioner

Richmond Landcare Incorporated welcomes and supports the calls from Ballina Shire Council, Byron Shire Council and Rous County Council that the State Government establish a Richmond River Commissioner.

There have been multiple studies on the condition of coastal river systems on the east coast of NSW that have cited that the Richmond River and its primary tributary the Wilsons River are the most degraded waterways in the region. Impacts from land clearing have led to significant degradation such as high nutrient levels (nitrogen and phosphorus), poor water clarity due to excessive erosion in the upper catchments and significant loss of riparian vegetation, which have all had catastrophic consequences. The Richmond has experienced major blackwater events and fish kills, such as after the flooding during ex Tropical Cyclone Alfred in 2025, where hundreds of thousands of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic animals suffocated due to the organic matter (which is what makes the water black) consuming all the oxygen in the water.

The thing is we know what to do. Revegetation of creek and riverbanks and the reinstatement of wetlands will filter run off from surrounding land and prevent debris and sediment from entering streams. Many of our Landcare groups and landholders have been undertaking this work for many decades, accessing small scale grants from agencies (e.g. rural landholder initiative) across the whole of the catchment. Under the current management framework, multiple agencies are responsible for different aspects of waterway management for the same river system across the region, including the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), local government councils, Rous County Council and North Coast Local Land Services, contributing to a fragmentation of waterway management actions across the catchment.

Despite the work already invested in our catchment, we are not seeing the shift in condition that we need to see at the scale it needs to happen. RLI believes that establishment of a Richmond River Commissioner, with the statutory authority advocating for river health and to fund and coordinate the catchment management activities at a landscape scale required to heal our catchment, is critical. We can’t wait any longer, we as a community need to see the changes required to restore the health of this beautiful catchment, and as the Richmond Riverkeeper vision states, make it drinkable, swimmable and fishable once more.

For further information please contact Richmond Landcare at info@richmondlandcare.org