A long-running proposal to build hundreds of new homes on the North Lismore Plateau has been knocked back, with the NSW Land and Environment Court dismissing an appeal by developer Mackycorp Pty Ltd and refusing consent for the subdivision.

The Northern Regional Planning Panel had already refused the development application in December 2022. So the developer appealed to the NSW Land and Environment Court, asking the Court to overturn that refusal.

That decision was handed down today, the same day construction activity and government announcements moved ahead on neighbouring land immediately beside the proposed subdivision site.

Commissioner Peter Walsh dismissed the appeal by Mackycorp Pty Ltd and confirmed the refusal of the development application, which sought approval for a large-scale subdivision across 18 parcels of land in the Dunoon Road area of North Lismore. The proposal involved up to 667 residential lots, new roads, public reserves and a local centre on more than 126 hectares of land.

The proposed development site along Dunoon Road

In his judgment, Commissioner Walsh made clear that while the site has long been identified for residential use and holds strategic importance for post-flood recovery, the application failed on the point of understanding the Aboriginal cultural heritage significance and the impacts the development would have on that heritage.

“There is evidence that the proposed subdivision has potential to bring about serious impacts in relation to Aboriginal cultural heritage significance,” the Commissioner wrote, finding that the applicant had not provided “a satisfactory assessment of Aboriginal cultural heritage significance of the subject land within the wider landscape”.

The North Lismore Plateau was recognised by the Court as a place of very high cultural significance, not only because of physical artefacts found during archaeological testing, but because of its role as a broader cultural landscape tied together by pathways, stories, ceremonial sites and long-standing cultural connections.

The judgment was particularly critical of the developer’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment Report, noting that understanding cultural significance must come first.

“Understanding cultural significance comes first,” Commissioner Walsh said, referencing the Burra Charter, before impacts can be properly assessed or mitigated.

The case was carried forward by Bundjalung Elder and traditional owner Michael “Mickey” Ryan. His objections centred on the irreversible harm the development would cause to both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

Al Oshlack, who represented Mr Ryan, said the decision was the culmination of around 15 years of litigation and planning battles over the plateau.

“This has been going on for about 15 years,” Mr Oshlack said. “We’ve litigated five or six major cases, and each of those involved hundreds of procedural and interlocutory matters. It’s been a massive case.”

He said the Court accepted every substantive issue raised by the respondents and was openly critical of parts of the developer’s evidence.

“Every single point we raised was successful,” Mr Oshlack said. “The Commissioner was fairly critical of some of the evidence that was put forward by the developer.”

Mr Oshlack described the case as a clear “either-or” decision.

“Either you set about destroying what we estimate could be hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of artefacts for the sake of this development, or you don’t,” he said. “There was no real ground for compromise. That’s why this became a precedent case.”

The judgment acknowledged that the proposal offered real benefits, including housing supply on elevated land close to the Lismore CBD and its role in flood recovery planning following the 2022 disaster. However, the Court found those benefits did not outweigh the risks posed by inadequate assessment of cultural heritage impacts.

“The applicant has not been able to demonstrate that the impacts of the proposed development… are acceptable,” the Commissioner concluded.

The timing of the decision added another layer of complexity.

On the same day the Court handed down its ruling, the NSW Government confirmed it had acquired 18.5 hectares of high-ground land immediately beside the refused subdivision site as part of the Resilient Lands Program. That neighbouring land will deliver around 85 housing lots above the flood line, alongside the future Rivers Secondary College Richmond River High Campus.

Mr Oshlack said the coincidence was deeply ironic.

“Yes, it’s ironic,” he said. “Everyone involved knew this case was underway and how significant it was. This case traversed years of evidence, expert cultural heritage witnesses, and multiple hearing blocks. You’d think decisions around the plateau would wait for that process to conclude.”

While the Court ruling applies only to the Mackycorp subdivision, Mr Oshlack said the plateau remains under ongoing pressure from what he described as inappropriate or inadequately considered development.

“The plateau is still under threat,” he said. “This decision doesn’t mean the story is over.”

The developer may still seek to appeal the ruling, and Mr Oshlack confirmed an application for costs will now be pursued, arguing the case was unnecessarily prolonged.

For Lismore, the decision has drawn another sharp line through one of the city’s most contested development sites… on a day when new housing and infrastructure were being celebrated just metres away.