Locals have expressed frustration at a public meeting in Kyogle around a controversial CSRIO report aimed at reducing flooding, with residents asking for more details around mapping which could have significant impacts on properties and farmland.

After four years of work, the CSIRO has come to the conclusion that multiple water detentions (dams), in the upper reaches of the catchments in the Northern Rivers, along with other flood mitigation engineering, could reduce future catastrophic flooding impacts in Lismore and elsewhere by as much as 2 metres.

Can the public have confidence that federal flood recovery and resilience programs will actually deliver, given the state government’s botched roll-out of flood assistance via the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation.