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The Latest Breaking News from Northern Rivers

When disasters strike, home batteries could be a lifeline

Extreme weather is placing greater strain on Australia’s power grids. In 2022, the record-breaking Northern Rivers floods blacked out almost 70,000 households. A powerful storm in 2024 cut electricity to more than half a million Victorians. In 2025, Cyclone Alfred left 320,000 homes without power.

The Conversation

From surprise platypus to wandering cane toads, here’s what we found hiding in NSW estuaries

Rivers up and down the north coast of New South Wales have been hammered again, just three years after devastating floods hit the Northern Rivers and Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.

The Conversation

Ex-Cyclone Alfred has left flooding in its wake. Here’s how floods affect our health

Ex-Cyclone Alfred is bringing significant rainfall to southeast Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. Flooding has hit Lismore, Ballina, Grafton, Brisbane and Hervey Bay, which received 150 mm of rainfall in two hours this morning.

The Conversation

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‘No-one wants to go through this again’: how disaster-stricken residents in northern NSW are preparing for Cyclone Alfred

It’s been three years since floods pummelled the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Now, Cyclone Alfred is heading for the region, threatening devastation once more.

The Conversation

New weather system to strike eastern Australia with strong winds and rain

Eastern NSW, particularly northern rivers, and Gold Coast at high risk for severe thunderstorms and winds on Thursday, BoM forecasts

The Guardian - AU

Endure – or peter out? Here’s what Northern Rivers organisers and Stop Adani can teach us about building climate groups

Over the last decade, several groups in Australia have successfully mobilised against fossil fuel interests. But which ones have gone the distance?

The Conversation

The brutal calculation that decides if children in danger get help

The child protection system is so stretched that some cases are simply marked ‘closed’ without children being seen at all, caseworkers say. In the northern rivers, the situation is among the worst

The Guardian - AU

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'Completely lost': exhibition captures disaster despair

Photographer Natalie Grono's stirring images of the NSW Northern Rivers floods form a new exhibition that reminds viewers of the enormity of the devastation.

AAP

'Significant risk': Planning department lumps Hunter with Northern Rivers

The restructure has split the Hunter and Central Coast.

Newcastle Herald

Lismore still recovering two years after record flood

Northern Rivers locals say another disaster would wipe towns off the map as they mark two years since thousands of people lost their homes to floods.

AAP

How a community 'saved itself' after Lismore flood, amid state government failure

Women did 'the bulk of unpaid work' after Northern Rivers floods.

Newcastle Herald

Flood victims face another Christmas of uncertainty

NSW Northern Rivers communities devastated by flooding in 2022 say it could take a decade to recover after progress was hampered by a mismanaged buyback scheme.

AAP

When disaster strikes, emergency responders can't respond to every call. Communities must be helped to help themselves

As record-breaking floods in North Queensland ease and water levels recede, the focus now turns to the mop-up and recovery. Residents have been supporting each other through the flood crisis, such as processing donated goods, conducting welfare checks on neighbours and helping each other clean up homes.

The Conversation

Planting 'koala corridors' to save Australia's endangered marsupial

The vast networks of vegetation, planted by local conservation group Bangalow Koalas in the Northern Rivers region of the state, are a lifeline for koalas and numerous other species like the endangered glossy black cockatoo, gliders, possums, and wallabies.

The Hindu

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AAP

Reset needed on troubled flood buybacks: NSW Premier

A flood buyback scheme for low-lying properties in the Northern Rivers needs a reset, NSW premier Chris Minns says, amid widespread confusion over eligibility.

AAP

Rebuilding homes to be quicker after NSW disasters

Rebuilding country towns after natural disasters will be quicker under new rules being deployed for the first time in the NSW Northern Rivers.

The Conversation

Supermarket shelves were empty for months after the Lismore floods. Here's how to make supply chains more resilient

From the outside, the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales seems idyllic. Rainforests, mountains, beaches and Byron Bay. But the past few years have made life harder for many who live there, with Black Summer bushfires, the COVID pandemic and intense flooding.

The New Daily

‘More uncertainty’: Lismore mayor blasts cut in homes eligible for flood buyback scheme

Home buyback scheme in the NSW's flood-prone Northern Rivers is creating additional trauma for victims, Lismore mayor says.

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AAP

Lismore mayor slams rollout of flood buybacks

Only a handful of households have so far received funding through a Northern Rivers flood buyback scheme, amid calls for the process to be sped up.

The New Daily

Investigation into deaths of man and boy after grisly discovery

An investigation is underway after the bodies of a man and boy were discovered inside a home in the NSW Northern Rivers region on Thursday.

The Guardian - AU

Alternative reality: two kambo deaths spark soul-searching in Australia’s counter-culture capital

Two weeks of harrowing testimony at consecutive inquests shines a light on the northern rivers’ alternative therapy scene

ABC News

Northern Rivers flood rebuild estimate reaches $7.9b and is tipped to rise

The head of the region's reconstruction corporation says there are more than 2,500 projects that need to be completed after last year's catastrophic flooding.

AAP

Premier tours flood-hit region on slow road to recovery

The new premier of NSW will tour the flood-ravaged Northern Rivers region to hear from people who lost their homes on progress with flood-proofing and buybacks.

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