Lismore has been allocated $1.7 million of Tranche 2 funding for the CSIRO-led Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program.

When Tranche 1 was announced on February 23, Lismore received the bulk of the $50 million in funding through 14 Lismore City Council projects like upgrading pumps at Browns Creek. Tranche 2 was focused more on the other LGAs (local government areas), with Ballina receiving the largest portion being $48 million for road-raising projects in order to improve flood evacuation potential.

Byron Shire received $14.16 million to reduce the flood impact in rural areas while Richmond Valley's allocation was $18m for raising two low-set bridges.

Federal Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt told the media the Tranche 2 funding announcement was one month ahead of what he mentioned on the February 23 launch of the project.

"I'm pleased that we've been able to do that actually within about five months, because we do want to keep the pace up to have these projects starting to happen."

Minister Watt also mentioned the timing of the Tranche 1 projects. It has been five months since the first announcement with no sign of activity and no sign of any money being deposited into the LCC bank account so they can start ordering critical underwater pumps to prepare for the next flood.

"Over the course of the last couple of weeks, funding agreements have been finalised with a number of councils, a number of other organisations and the New South Wales Government to really get started on those Tranche 1 projects that we announced back in February. There has been a lot of work happening in the meantime around the planning and design so that we're ready to go."

Minister Watt said his understanding was there was one or two projects left to be finalised. The Lismore App is waiting for comment from Lismore City Council about whether it has completed funding agreements for its Tranche 1 14 projects.

"I recognise that people would like to see these things happening more quickly, but it does take a bit of time to finalise design of projects and to lock in those funding agreements, that has now (been) completed. I can assure you, and my agency will tell you, that I've put a lot of pressure on them to keep up the momentum on this, and they then, in turn, do that with the New South Wales Government. I want to get every single one of these projects started as quickly as we can."

Given it has taken five months to nearly start work on Tranche 1 projects, when can work be expected to begin on Tranche 2 projects?

"I would certainly hope that we would see work on some of these projects at least start this calendar year, and my expectation as the Minister is that because we have taken a bit more time to finalise the due diligence on these projects, that should allow us to actually start work on them more quickly than we have been able to today. But as I say, my expectation is that some of them at least would start this calendar year."

Understandably, Sharon Cadwallader, Mayor of Ballina and Rob Mustow, Mayor of Richmond Valley, were very happy and appreciative of their multi-million dollar projects. Mayor Steve Krieg was not at today's press conference held at Bungawalbin, near Coraki.

(Mayor of Tweed Chris Cherry, Mayor of Richmond Valley Rob Mustow, Federal Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt and Mayor of Ballina Sharon Cadwallader)

The Lismore projects to receive funding were:

• $210,000 to revitalise South and East Lismore Twon Drains - South and East Lismore are serviced by two main drains, which are historic and need their condition revitalised and preserved. Both drains reduce the length of inundation after flooding and are important during major flood events.
• $1 million to widen Browns Creek flood channel, culvert, and re-route services currently restricting flow at Brewster Street - The existing channel narrows when it crosses Brewster Street causing a restriction in flows which then breaks the channel and spills across the parks and roads at Brewster and Uralba Streets, in front of the Lismore Square Shopping Centre. This project will improve evacuation routes and extend evacuation timeframes.
• $500,000 for Lismore Drainage Mitigation - Drain clearance operation across 60 streets in the Lismore area. This cleanup will also help identify any damaged stormwater drains as well as infrastructure issues, which include a known issue that some of the drains do not drain anywhere.

Dr Jai Vazethe, Senior Principal Research Scientist for the CSIRO, told the Lismore App the flood channels would help flood mitigation in minor and medium floods but he thinks the benefits would not be effective during a major flood as the Wilson River rises.

When Tranche 1 funding was announced in February, there were more projects for flood mitigation, whereas Tranche 2 has more money allocated to flood resilience projects, such as roads and bridges being raised. While this does create increased timeframes for escape routes during a major flood and will allow road access quicker following a flood it does not reduce the effect of a flood.

When asked if this has been a change of focus for the Federal Government, Minister Watt responded, "No, what we did in February was announced the projects that we had sufficient information to be confident of at the time, and it so happened that most of them were in the mitigation space. So things like the pump stations in Lismore and other things like that."

"This time, there are also flood mitigation projects being committed to as well but there is an increasing number of projects this time round that you might call more flood resilience or evacuation routes and things like that. And that's simply because they required a bit more examination before we were in a position to commit to them."

"So my view, as the Minister, is that both mitigation and resilience is important. It's important to make sure that we're investing to stop damage from occurring in the first place through mitigation, but it's also important to make sure that communities are supported if disasters happen to be able to recover quickly through resilience measures. And that's why things like those evacuation routes and fixing Dairy Flat here are important. It's not necessarily that homes are going to be flooded through the dip in Dairy Flat here, but it does cut off roads, and it cuts off people getting out of the areas when they're in danger. It also stops communities from recovering quickly, and getting economy's getting back on their feet."

"So, from our point of view, resilience and mitigation are both important."

The greater flood mitigation picture still lies with the CSIRO and the report it is in the middle of building. The time frame for the release of the full report is still the end of 2024. Dr Vaze said he and his team are in the middle of building a flood model to show to all levels of government. This is the most difficult phase of the project.