There is a lot happening across the Macleay catchment right now. From fighting mining contamination to celebrating our local platypus populations, Save Our Macleay River (SOMR) has been busy advocating for our waters.
Here is the “State of the River” update for April 2026:
The Hillgrove Mine Threat…
Clybucca Wetlands: A “Vinegar” Flood
Council Watch: Erosion & Development
Celebrating the Platypus & Rakali
5. We Need Your Help: Water Testing
1. The Hillgrove Mine Threat… We’ve lodged a formal ‘Submission of Objection’ against Hillgrove Mine’s Modification 5. This project poses a massive contamination risk to the river downstream.
The Concern: We believe the assessment is flawed and ignores cumulative impacts from multiple mine sites.
The Update: The mining company has hired a former Assistant Minister as a “strategic advisor”—we suspect this is a push for lenient approvals. We are watching closely.
Image from Larvotto Annual Report.
2. Clybucca Wetlands: A “Vinegar” Flood A recent report found that the Clybucca Wetlands are the largest source of Acid Sulphate contamination in our floods. The River is taking the equivalent of 170 Olympic swimming pools of pH3 (vinegar-level acidity) flowing into the estuary in floods. We are currently lobbying politicians and agencies to prioritise wetland restoration to prevent this.
3. Council Watch: Erosion & Development
Riverbank Erosion: A 2025 report shows erosion has surged since 2005. We’ve asked Kempsey Shire Council for a clear plan on how they intend to fix these priority zones. – no response to date!
Development Control: We’ve reviewed the new Draft DCP. While some parts are okay, we’re worried that a loss of environmental staff at the Council will lead to poor monitoring of new developments. We are following this up!
4. Celebrating the Platypus & Rakali On March 7th, we attended in Armidale to discuss the “Rights of the River.” It was a powerful afternoon hearing from Traditional Custodians and ecologists about how we can rehabilitate our headwaters to protect these iconic species.
Image, Thelma and Rainbow Serpent weaving
5. We Need Your Help: Water Testing We’ve refreshed our field kits and are ready to test! We can check for pH, Salts, Nitrogen, Arsenic, and more. – Do you know a freshwater site that looks contaminated? Please reach out to us via our email saveourmacleayriver.com We want to put our field kits to work where they are needed most.
Doubles the mining and processing of ores for gold, antimony and now tungsten and ‘production’,
Reopens old mines, adjacent Bakers Creek,
Expands infrastructure (roading, power etc.),
Upgrades processing plant; Proposes dry stack of tailings; and
Proposes 24/7 365 days a year operation – along with many other matters.
Existing Mine Processing Facilities and surrounds above Bakers Creek escarpment. (looking south)
Save Our Macleay River will review the proposal’s documents and make a submission to Dept of Planning on this significant expansion and extension of the mine’s operations to prevent further impact on the Macleay River.
• Give effect to the objectives of the Kempsey Local Environmental Plan.
• Guide development that is permissible under the Kempsey Local Environmental Plan.
• Achieve the objectives of land-use zones prescribed under the Kempsey Local Environmental Plan.
• Outline Council’s requirements for new development in Kempsey.
This is a 440page document that affects how the shire will plan and accommodate various developments. There is little in there that relates to the Macleay River, but some items may affect the water courses and estuary with potential for pollution. – SOMR is to review and comment on relevant matters affecting the river.
Oven Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage proposal:
Alinta’s Project is in the final stages of development assessment and awaiting final planning approvals and economic feasibility assessment. Apparently, not much is happening ‘on the ground’.
Informed by a shareholder briefing: Sembcorp Industries, a Singaporean company, proposes to acquire Alinta Energy, likely including the OMPHS project, via a share agreement, signed 11th December; to be put to an Extraordinary meeting late January for shareholder approval and Completion due sometime in 2026. – Note: This acquisition is still subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.
This 2025 report, by Fruition Environmental, presents the findings of the Macleay River Estuary NEAP Bank and Riparian Condition Assessment was commissioned and managed by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development – Fisheries.
SOMR is to ask KS Council, for a breakdown of the erosion control works Council has done on the Macleay River since the 2005 assessment report and an implementation plan for the recommended priority works in the 2025 report.
It appears WRL were likely briefed by NSW Dept of Primary Industries and Regional Development, to prepare a ‘water quality analysis’ and note some of the impacts. Impacts include:
A significant flood event will produce 170 Olympic swimming pools of pH3 sulphuric acid (vinegar) into the estuary! and
massive amounts of Low dissolved Oxygen water – ‘Blackwater’, impacting the entire estuary.
The assessment does not provide solutions for resolve.
SOMR discussed the report, impacts on various industries relying on clean water and the farmers ‘rights to graze’. along with management of the Menarcobrinni floodgates. It was resolved to write to the Commissioning body, and other relevant Govt agencies, to outline the impacts in WRL’s report and advocate for salt water re-inundation; the best method to avoid the above impacts.
Stuarts Point Sewerage Works Proposal by KSC
Kempsey Sire Council’s proposal is to pipe sewerage from inputs between Grassy Head and Fishermans Reach to a Treatment plant south of Stuarts Point and then discharge the treated effluent onto the sand dunes, between the east side of the pedestrian bridge and the beach.
SOMR hastily managed to review the proposal and develop a submission to the Dept of Planning Portal by the due date. The Submission did not object to the need for a sewerage treatment plant, as it is needed. The submission objected to the lower level of treatment and disposal method and outlined some omissions in the proposal’s assessment.
SOMR’s submission proposed:
a higher level of treatment which was described as too expensive in the proposal,
while trenching between the residences and treatment plant, simultaneously lay ‘Recycled Water’ pipes adjacent to the sewer.
The result being:
ability for all to use recycled water for non-potable purposes & irrigation, and possibly cost recover,
lower demand of potable supply from the aquifer/bore-water, and
eliminate impacts on the delicate dunal system and Macleay Arm environments.
Macleay Arm, looking east toward the proposed discharge dune.
Mungay and Deep Creeks – SOMR Notice to Residents about the safer use of water
The old Mungay Creek antimony mine closed in 1972 with minimal rehabilitation and has since been leaching antimony and arsenic into Deep and Mungay Creeks and eventually into the Macleay River downstream from Willawarrin.
In 2017, the then NSW Derelict Mines Department were going to reduce the antimony and arsenic with managed sediment dams, but later changed priorities and did nothing.
Mid North Coast Local District Health and later Kempsey Shire Council, were requested by SOMR to help to develop and distribute a ‘Notice to Residents’ about the safer use of water downstream from the Mungay Mine. Both declined. Therefore, SOMR developed the Notice to Residents and distributed it to every property adjacent to the two affected waterways.
Letterboxing Notice to Residents
Information in the ‘Notice’ is based on 7 years monitoring findings by Professor Scott Johnson of Southern Cross University (SCU) and the University of New England’s research over the last 20 years.
According to the NSW government’s DPHI Project Planning Portal the pumped hydro scheme in the Macleay Valley near Georges Junction is still in the assessment phase. The decision is in the hands of Paul Scully, the Minister for Planning, and was expected by the end of last year with Alinta Energy advising that construction would start by mid-2025. The company has now changed the expected construction commencement to 2026.
In their March Newsletter Alinta informed that they are assessing the geology along Armidale Road “to ensure the proposed transport route can be upgraded. so our haulage vehicles can safely deliver construction materials during the project’s construction phase.” Will the necessary upgrade and maintenance of Armidale Road be publicly funded?
Alinta is keeping up the public profile by participating in the New England Renewable Energy Careers Expo in March 2025 and by offering community grants for “grass roots organisations” of $20,000 each to a total of $250,000.
Fines for Clybucca illegal dams
On 27th February 2025, the NSW Local Court found the company Greenleaf Australia and the director Xiuming Lin guilty of 12 of 16 charges each. The company was fined $224,000 and ordered to pay $155.000 in costs and to carry out extensive remediation. The director was fined $71,250.
SOMR has not found details of the remediation order, but it can be expected that at least the dam with the leaking dam wall at the boundary to the Clybucca Wetlands will be removed.
Riverside Gravel Extraction
Flooding of the Macleay River in March and April saw the equipment taken to higher ground. A recent site visit with the owner to the adjacent upstream property confirmed that the extraction ‘hole’ held water and recent upstream bank erosion was evident. The ‘head-erosion’ has now reached the main river channel.
Residents in the vicinity of the quarries and SOMR believe that the DAs should have been assessed as Designated Development and not approved as Existing Use Rights, because the EP&A act defines existing use as one that began legally but would now be prohibited.
Several matters of the then legislation would make the Gravel Extraction DAs a ‘Designated Development’ thus requiring an EIS.
In answer to a GIPA (Freedom of Information) lodged with KSC, SOMR found that no EISs ever existed.
SOMR is contacting the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) for legal advice.
Hillgrove Mine
With record gold price and near record antimony price, Larvotto the current owners of Hillgrove Mines, are aiming to re-commence ore production by early 2026.
Since acquiring Hillgrove Mine in late 2023, Larvotto completed diamond drilling programs at Clarkes Gully and Bakers Creek, is investigating the construction of a new tailings dam as well as the method of Dry Stack Tailings.
In March 2025, Larvotto announced the purchase of Echidna Gully, an established facility located near Hillgrove to secure accommodation for the expected workforce. On 10 April 2025 he company opened an Information and Community Engagement Hub in Armidale.
As a ‘first step’ in open communications with ‘Larvotto’, SOMR representatives participated in an online meeting with Non-Executive Director Rachelle Domansky and Chief Operating Officer Sonja Neame on 17 April. At the meeting, SOMR relayed the history of communications with the mine operators since 2013 and reaffirmed the group’s primary concern with protection of the Macleay River from As & Sb and other harmful elements. In reference to potential contamination, the safety of the proposed ‘Dry Stacking’ process of waste material was questioned.
To improve community understanding, it was proposed to establish of a ‘Community Reference Group’ including SOMR and downstream stakeholders such as First Nations representatives and Kempsey Shire Council. Rachelle Domansky will work towards a first Reference Group meeting in May.
Water Test Kit
SOMR has now ordered a new Water Test Kit. The process of identifying and ordering the components was complicated because several suppliers had to be contacted. Some of them are located overseas. The kit includes coliform, phosphate, arsenic tests and more. The cost is covered by the community grant SOMR received from Kempsey Shire Council.
SOMR has already received several requests for water testing
NSW Water Sharing Plan Review (Macleay catchment)
As reported in the End of 2024 Update, SOMR contributed a brief submission to the NSW Water Sharing Plan Review.
As a consequence, SOMR members were invited to an online meeting with the Natural Resource Commission’s Principal Advisor Stef Schulte in December 2024 and a face to face meeting in March 2025 at the Kempsey Library with Andrew Craig, Senior Water Planner at DCCEE&W. SOMR’s submission was discussed at both opportunities. Concerns about water contamination were also raised, however the Water Sharing Plan is only concerned with water quantity, not quality.
Earth Law – Rights of the River
SOMR is preparing to facilitate a presentation in Armidale by the National Convenor of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA), Michelle Maloney. This will be another step on the long journey to the full protection of the Macleay River.
Become a member of Save Our Macleay River Inc by using the application form on the website. Meetings discussing the above issues, and more, are held every six weeks and are open to all members either in person or via Zoom.
