Has the Minns Government quietly killed off the Dunoon Dam?
Shock and frustration after dam disappears from water review – with Ballina most exposed
A growing sense of shock and frustration is spreading among residents who attended this week’s NSW Government water consultation sessions, after discovering the long-studied Dunoon Dam had been removed entirely from the official shortlist.
For many, the revelation felt less like an oversight and more like a major strategic shift made without public explanation.
And nowhere is the concern more acute than in Ballina — the largest and fastest-growing community on the Rous County Council water network, and the area that would feel the effects most immediately if long-term security plans fall short.
‘Sham consultation’: no presentation, no detail
At the Ballina session held at the Lighthouse Beach Surf Club, residents were stunned to find no presentation, no structured briefing, no slides, and only a thin A4 map alongside a double-sided information sheet. Staff were present, but none appeared to be taking proper notes.
One attendee described it as “the most undercooked consultation I’ve ever seen”.
Similar scenes unfolded in Lismore, Casino and other areas serviced by Rous water — where locals arrived expecting meaningful briefings and instead found what one described as “a table with leaflets”.
“On the plus side, there were fresh sandwiches and lovely cold-pressed juices,” she said.
Meanwhile, the state’s material focused heavily on desalination, recycled water, groundwater extraction and a proposed inter-regional water sharing pipeline.
For residents of Ballina, Lismore, Byron and the Richmond Valley, the omission of Dunoon Dam — the one option most deeply studied over decades — left many with a single question:
Was the decision already made before consultation even began?
Around a dozen people turned up for the Ballina session on Wednesday
‘How is this not even in the plan?’
One Ballina resident who attended Wednesday’s briefing at the Lighthouse Beach Surf Club said the lack of information was “staggering”.
“When I asked why Dunoon Dam wasn’t in the material, they said, ‘That’s a council project, not part of our plan’,” she told Ballina News Daily.
“To spend millions on studies and land and then pretend it’s no longer relevant — it makes no sense.”
She pointed to what she described as duplication between NSW DPI’s regional water work and the CSIRO’s flood-mitigation studies.
“We keep paying for more studies when the dam could have been built years ago.”
‘A new low point’: Future Water Northern Rivers
Our Future Northern Rivers spokesperson Richard Trevan, who attended the Lismore session, said the event “descended into a debacle”.
“There was no presentation. People walked in and found a couple of sheets of paper.
“After half an hour people were saying, ‘What is going on?’ Some just left.”
Trevan said frustration cut across farmers, residents and retirees — many of whom drove long distances expecting detailed planning information.
Trevan was particularly critical of the department’s proposed pipeline linking Clarrie Hall Dam in Tweed to Rocky Creek Dam near Lismore.
“When you look at the topography, you’re talking about pumping water over more than 700 metres of elevation, between volcanic ridges, and likely through or underneath World Heritage rainforest,” he said.
“That means a massive pipeline, huge ongoing energy costs, or tunnelling through some of the hardest rock in Australia.”
“And when you ask the obvious questions — how will you pump it, who pays, how do you get approvals for a raw water pipeline through national parks? — there were no answers.”
Trevan said the consultation appeared to be a “box-ticking exercise” with a predetermined outcome, pushing one of the state’s lowest-income regions toward “the highest-cost water options imaginable”.
He said NSW must commit to a full reset of the Far North Coast Regional Water Strategy in collaboration with Rous and local councils.
Urgency motion: ‘All options must remain on the table’
The shock carried straight into civic decision-making on Thursday, with Lismore City Councillor Big Rob securing a 7–1 vote for an urgency motion demanding the NSW Government keep all options — including Dunoon Dam — on the table.
Cr Rob blasted the consultation:
“It was the worst I’ve ever seen. No briefing, no structure, no note-taking. The main officer sat for over an hour without writing anything.”
He said locals were tired of being “pushed toward the most expensive options” in one of the wettest regions of Australia.
“You don’t have to support a dam to support a fair assessment.”
On Friday the Northern Regional Joint Organisation of Councils final meeting for the year involving mayors from across the region passed a similar urgency motion.
Cadwallader to Minns: ‘Come and listen on the ground’
Ballina Shire Mayor Sharon Cadwallader, who is also Deputy Chair of the Rous County Council, said she was “deeply concerned” Dunoon Dam had again been excluded.
“The waste here is staggering. Rous has spent millions identifying Dunoon Dam as the best option.”
Cadwallader said Ballina’s growing population makes the issue urgent.
“Ballina is booming. We are the fastest-growing community on the Rous network. We cannot rely on high-cost options that fail to guarantee supply.”
She warned the region came close to running dry in previous droughts.
“We reached level five water restrictions — there is no level six. That’s when you start evacuating nursing homes and hospitals.”
Cadwallader rejected desalination as impractical and unaffordable, noting the only potential site was within the Tyagarah Nature Reserve with brine discharge into Cape Byron Marine Park.
Her message for the Premier was direct:
“Chris, you need to get down here and listen to the people on the ground.”
Rous Deputy Chair – Mayor Cadwallader pictured on an inspection of Rocky Creek Dam in 2022
‘It’s not an oversight. It’s a decision.’
Dunoon Dam has been investigated for decades, supported at various times and fiercely opposed at others.
Land has been acquired, modelling completed and cultural-heritage studies advanced — though not finalised.
A 2022 CSIRO desktop review found the state’s North Coast water strategy “not fit for purpose”.
Years later, locals say they still cannot see a credible long-term solution for drought and growth.
They believe the consultation process was structured to exclude dam infrastructure.
One attendee summed up the mood:
“It’s not an oversight. It’s a decision.”
‘Labor is wasting millions’
Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan said the review “cannot be taken seriously” unless Dunoon Dam is reinstated as an option.
“Labor’s refusal to consider the dam undermines the credibility of the entire review. It is ideological, not practical.”
He criticised the inclusion of desalination given Rous County Council’s own analysis found it was extremely high-cost and unsuitable for inland supply.
“Rous’ report makes it clear: desalinated water cannot be easily or economically pumped inland.”
He said the state and federal governments’ $5 million business case risks becoming “a study designed to ignore the one option that could actually fix water security”.
Where to now?
With dam options removed and costly alternatives promoted, those familiar with regional water economics fear the Northern Rivers is being pushed toward a costly and unsustainable future.
They warn that if desalination proceeds, along with Snowy Hydro–style tunnelling through national parks, the price of treated water could climb so high that households end up paying more per litre for drinking water than for petrol.
They say the Minns Government must take better control of the process now and put all options back on the table before Ballina and the wider Rous network are locked into decades of unnecessary cost.
Legendary Labor Premier Joe Cahill “fired the first shot in construction” of Rocky Creek Dam in 1949. It was built to serve a population of less than 30,000 – now it struggles to serve a regional population of over 120,000.
