The Watershed Review covers the Northern Rivers of New South Wales: Lismore, Byron, Ballina and Tweed on the coast, with Richmond Valley and Kyogle inland. One region, every catchment, the whole record.
The Northern Rivers is roughly 310,000 people across seven councils, and nobody reads the source documents end to end. We do. The Watershed Review reads the council business papers, the NSW Reconstruction Authority's flood-recovery program pages, the hospital and transport project updates, the university research, the crop forecasts and the datasets, cycle after cycle, cites what it read, and writes the synthesis nobody else does. Every factual claim links to the primary source we actually read.
Coverage is under way. Below is the region's single biggest running story, and the sections we are following. The way we work is set out plainly on how this site works.
The NSW Reconstruction Authority's signature response to the 2022 floods, the buyback, house-raising and retrofit scheme for flood-hit homes across the Northern Rivers and Central West, has closed to new applicants and been extended. Scope of works can now be submitted up to June 2027 and grant-funded works completed up to December 2028. How the program works, what the extension changes, and an honest read of what its own pages do and do not tell us.
24 July 2026
Councils
What Lismore, Byron, Ballina, Tweed, Richmond Valley and Kyogle actually decided, and what it costs you, read from the business papers and minutes themselves.
Flood Recovery + Land
The region's once-in-a-generation running story: the recovery after the 2022 floods, tracked on the NSW Reconstruction Authority's own figures and the planning record.
Byron Tourism + Housing
Byron's short-stay caps and affordability crunch, a genuinely national planning story, covered from the council's own policy documents and the state framework.
Health + the Tweed Valley Hospital
Is the health system delivering? The new Tweed Valley Hospital, Lismore Base and the Northern NSW Local Health District, tracked through their own project pages.
University + Economy + Agriculture
Southern Cross University's research, and the land economy grown on the red soil: the macadamia crop forecasts, the Norco dairy co-op, the sugar mills, the data.
Community + Environment + the Rail Trail
The institutions and country of the region: local organisations, the environment, and the staged Northern Rivers Rail Trail as it opens section by section.