Property

Thousands of Northern Rivers residents have been waiting anxiously for 16 months to see whether or not they would receive assistance via home buy-backs, retrofitting or house raising. This week, hundreds are being told they will receive no help from Government ...Members of A Way Forward are calling on the NSW and Federal Governments to urgently provide additional funding to the NRRC to extend their Resilient Homes program.

Owners of the Darling Downs Zoo, Steve and Stephanie Robinson have reluctantly placed the popular tourist attraction on the market due to Steve’s health. The Robinsons opened the Darling Downs Zoo in 2005 after many years of working with authorities to enable the project to go ahead.

New flood risk mapping released by the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Commission (NRRC) which has seen the number of homes eligible for buyback halved has been slammed by the Nationals as calls come for the second tranche of funding to be released. NRRC Chief Executive David Witherdin said the new mapping will inform the Commonwealth and  State Government’s co-funded $700 million program and be used to prioritise home buybacks,  raisings and retrofits.

The NSW Government has declared the Northern Rivers a formal reconstruction area to help support the building of homes after last year’s devastating floods. Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully said the declaration allows the NSW Reconstruction Authority (NSWRA) to make prompt decisions to influence reconstruction and aligns with the election commitment to accelerate the approval of new housing...

The average price of broadacre farmland per hectare has almost doubled over the last three years, increasing by 93 per cent from 2020 to 2023 ... Median farmland prices have grown most in the high rainfall zone, increasing by 125 per cent over the last 3 years to almost $9,000 per hectare.

A suite of new planning rules designed to protect River Murray regions from future flood events and assist with a strong recovery and rebuild are coming into effect this week. To fast-track the region’s recovery the interim changes will come into immediate effect from Thursday, providing a quicker building approval process for the influx of applications expected.

More than 79,000 hectares of the iconic Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park have been handed back to the Waanyi People in a historic ceremony at Parliament House ... Waanyi Prescribed Body Corporate will lease the Aboriginal land, in perpetuity, to the State to manage under the Nature Conservation Act, the first lease back arrangement that has been successfully negotiated on national park land in Queensland.

National online removalist booking platform Muval, which has the most up-to-date internal migration figures showing where Australians are moving right now, has crunched the May numbers to show the impact a year on from the start of interest rate rises.

Federal MP Kevin Hogan isn’t holding back in his criticism of the State Government halving the number of buybacks of Northern Rivers flooded homes. The decision to drastically cut the Northern Rivers homes buybacks was made even worse by an announcement that the Federal Government would be boosting buybacks in Queensland by an additional 300 homes, Mr Hogan said.

The Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens Zoo & Aviary is seeking Expressions of Interest (EOI) from the community to rehome five of its adult goats. The goats have been on display for several years but had to be relocated due to recent changes at the zoo.

A diligent Minister who had applied himself to the detail would have recognised the risks of running with a system that was overly complex and open to abuse. A competent Minister would have delayed the start date when they recognised that neither his department, the IT system, the LACHS or the industry was ready. But Buti did neither.

The farmers invited by Member for Mallee, Dr. Anne Webster, met with the Nationals leader David Littleproud, shadow ministers and senators, with Dr. Webster saying Mallee communities were being railroaded into accepting the $3.3 billion VNI West project. "I am deeply concerned for the region and fear Labor is railroading the community over thousands of kilometres of prime farmland and irrigation districts for a project that will have an enormous cost blow-out and detrimental consequences," Dr. Webster said.

A fundraising target of $505,000 has been exceeded to buy a former potato farm on Wilson Inlet’s eastern banks as a wildlife protection sanctuary. Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee and other groups comprising the Eungedup Wetlands Management Group have raised $516,000 to buy 103ha with the sale to be settled at the end of the month.

John Hassell. The system of land title in Australia that currently proves and protects our right to property is called the Torrens system, which was first introduced in 1858 in South Australia ... one could argue that Native Title has failed to deliver for the simple reason that, unlike freehold title, it does not confer a real property right, a right that the banks place a value on.

Richmond Valley Council has welcomed the release of the draft Resilient Lands Strategy by the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation. The strategy has identified Fairy Hill as a flood-safe housing opportunity.

Where can we build new housing that doesn’t flood? The Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation has identified 22 sites across the Northern Rivers that are suitable for flood-free housing development. Of these sites, 15 are ready for “immediate investigation”.

Gannawarra Shire Council has welcomed a proposed realignment of the VNI West route, which would involve constructing new high capacity electricity transmission lines that will pass through the Gannawarra ... “Council, along with the Murray River Group of Councils, has been advocating for VNI West to pass through the Gannawarra, and we have been promoting the benefits of these works to our residents for the past six years,” Mayor Charlie Gillingham said.

Northern Grampians Shire Council is appalled that widespread community opposition has had no material impact on Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) final recommended alignment for the controversial VNI West power transmission project ... “Landowners need clear and concise answers to the questions they have asked and not simply to refer them to some other arrangement as a reference to how it might work here": Mayor, Cr Kevin Erwin.