06/06/2026
Council’s latest statement on the proposed Blakebrook regional waste facility is a noticeable and welcome shift in tone.
For weeks, residents have been raising concerns about the scale of the proposal, traffic, water quality, environmental impacts, odour, noise and property values. Those concerns are now being acknowledged in writing by the Mayor and General Manager as valid and deserving of proper scrutiny.
This confirms what residents have been saying from the start: these are legitimate questions.
Now that acknowledgement needs to be matched by the process.
If all options are genuinely on the table, as the General Manager has now said, the community should not be asked to accept Blakebrook as the preferred path without seeing how it compares to the alternatives. More engagement is useful, but meaningful engagement requires sharing the business case, the assumptions and the alternatives.
Council assessed around 30 potential sites, but only Blakebrook has been brought forward publicly. The community has not been shown the other options, why they were ruled out, or whether they are now being seriously reconsidered in light of the concerns raised.
Yes, Council has to do reports. No one is saying decisions should be made without evidence. But there is a difference between doing studies to compare all reasonable options and spending more money to find out whether Blakebrook can be made to work.
If the only option being publicly advanced, funded and tested is Blakebrook, it is understandable that the community feels the process is still moving in one direction. Good communication needs to be backed by a transparent comparison of options.
There are also important financial questions raised by the Mayor’s recent comments on the Talking Lismore podcast.
On the podcast, the Mayor made clear that the push for a regional model is largely about economics and volume. Lismore produces about 17,000 tonnes of landfill waste a year. The regional model being discussed is around 60,000 to 65,000 tonnes a year.
If the numbers only work by taking waste from other councils, the community deserves to know exactly what assumptions are being used. Which councils are included? Are there binding commitments? What happens if those councils do not send the projected waste volumes here? Who carries the financial risk if the business case does not stack up?
The Mayor also pointed to the MRF as an example. Lismore invested in a regional recycling facility, took material from neighbouring LGAs, and was left exposed when the global market changed and China stopped taking that material.
That example should make us more cautious, not less. It shows what can happen when Lismore builds infrastructure around regional waste assumptions that later change.
There is also a complex economic point regarding Queensland that needs further clarifying in my view. The Mayor noted that Queensland’s waste levy is increasing and sending waste there will become more expensive. But he also suggested it may still be cheaper for Lismore to send waste to Queensland than build a local-only landfill if the regional model does not stack up.
It is hard to weigh those two points against each other without seeing the data. If Queensland is becoming more expensive and risky, how can it also remain the cheaper fallback option? If the answer is that building a local landfill is even more expensive, Council should show the modelling clearly so we can understand the reality.
None of this means Wyrallah Road is a long-term answer. The 2022 flood showed the limits of having a landfill on a floodplain, and Council has to plan for the future.
But Wyrallah Road being unsuitable does not automatically make Blakebrook suitable. It also does not automatically justify Lismore becoming the regional destination for other councils’ waste.
Council’s statement says water quality, traffic, noise, odour and environmental impacts will all require rigorous assessment. That is exactly the right standard.
But the community is not just asking whether Blakebrook can be assessed. The community is asking why Blakebrook is the option being advanced before the other sites and alternatives have been properly disclosed.
If we want to build genuine trust with the community, the next step cannot just be more information sessions while the same project keeps moving forward. The next step is sharing the broader options, the assumptions, the costs, the risks, and the reasons other pathways have or have not been ruled out.
Because this is not just about where rubbish goes - It is about who carries the burden, who takes the risk, and what kind of future we are planning for Lismore.
So let’s keep up the discussion going - The next community meeting is on TOMORROW at 10am Goolmangar Hall
