🟡 Your local news in 6 mins

⏱️ The 93rd edition of our newsletter is a six-minute read.

👋 Hello, Ellie here – your Mid North Coaster reporter.

📸 I’m happy the sharing of photos has caught on. Here’s another pic of our beautiful region sent in by a reader. Alexandra snapped this shot over the weekend.

➡️ If you ever want to get in touch to send in a pic, or a story tip, some feedback or pehaps to simply say hi, just reply to this email and I’ll be on the other side.

🗞️ In today’s newsletter you’ll meet Sawtell’s Richard Kelloway, a Vietnam War veteran who is behind the opening of a new veterans’ wellbeing centre in Coffs Harbour that links veterans and their families with service providers.

More good news for the area’s ex-services is the launch of a housing project helping veterans and their families in an emergency and to transition out of the armed forces. We’ll look at what the project includes and why it matters.

• 📍 Did you know: there are 65,000 veterans living in the Coffs Harbour LGA, according to 2021 census.

We’ll also take into yet another landslip on Waterfall Way that closed part of the road in January with no timeline of when it will re-open.

Heavy rainfall triggered the 200-tonne landslip, and with the MNC known for severe weather events, and predictions of extreme weather events becoming more intense and more frequent, the government is under pressure to decide on a long-term solution – and fast.

There’s also a video tour below of a local couple’s new home that they built using Passive House principles.

• 📍What’s that? Passive House principles focus on building with a design standard that optimises the “thermal envelope” (the later separating the inside from outside) of a home to ultimately use less energy, reducing carbon emissions.

Emma and Scott took me through each room explaining how the design works and why they’d recommend it to others.

Let’s crack in…

The housing project helping veterans and their families in an emergency

A critical shortage of housing for the tens of thousands of veterans living in the Coffs Harbour LGA has led veteran family charity Coffs Coast Legacy to build a dozen new units focused on transitional and emergency housing, particularly for mothers and children.

What happened: The new Coffs Harbour housing project was officially launched last month, with 12 units set to be built on Albany Street made up of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom residences.

Coffs Coast Legacy president Jeremy Nash said the project was “critical” and will be built on land owned by the charity.

Why it matters: Coffs Coast Legacy has been acquiring property for years with a vision to provide homes for veteran’s families. 

• The charity currently operates about 30 units – majority of those one-bedroom units – across Coffs Harbour and Sawtell, as well as a 49-bed nursing home.

Jeremy Nash, president of Coffs Coast Legacy, told The Mid North Coaster there’s a “critical shortage” of suitable housing in the area.

• There are about 65,000 veterans living in the City of Coffs Harbour, according to the 2021 census.

• “We look after, at the moment, a diminishing number of World War II widows, obviously. We have Vietnam veterans and widows, and we have an increasing number of families that we look after because of post traumatic stress [disorder]  amongst people who've been peacekeepers in more recent operations,” Nash said.

Transitional and emergency housing: Nash said transitioning out of the armed services can often be a “traumatic process”. Transitional housing provides interim support to help veterans reintegrate back into society and provide suitable housing for families.

• While the to-be-built 12 units are open to all ex-services, they will be targeted to mothers with children, which is why three-bedroom units are included in the plans.

“There's very little available for a slightly larger family,” Nash said. “With the shortage of housing that exists in our area, I don't think we would have a problem always filling the available spots with the intended target audience.”

The housing will also prioritise those who find themselves in need of emergency accommodation. 

• “Some people find themselves suddenly homeless, or there's a divorce, or life tragedies happen,” Nash said. “It's nice to be able to have somewhere where we can look after people in those circumstances.”

What’s the cost: Coffs Coast Legacy was successful in getting a $4.1 million grant for the project from the Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA), which will be topped up by a further $1.8million from Legacy.

As for the cost to tenants, Nash says the housing is “in the affordable bracket”. 

• “There would be a rate that is normally either 25 percent or 30 percent of income plus the CRA [Commonwealth Rent Assistance], that would come to [Coffs Coast Legacy] that would enable us to maintain the premises to a suitable standard, to allow us to make it last forever,” Nash said.

• “Legacy has a history of really doing its best to look after families of veterans. Those who are not in financial difficulties pay their way. People who are in financial difficulties, we try to help out.”

🗞️ Read the full article on the website including how it works, what’s the cost, plans for the future and anticipated timeline.

⛰ Landslips, diversions and promises galore: Will Waterfall Way ever be fit for purpose?

The notorious stretch of Waterfall Way connecting Bellingen and Dorrigo has again become a political football after a fourth closure in the past 12 months due to a landslip caused by heavy rainfall.

Impacted residents and politicians on all sides know all too well there’s no quick fix to a landslip – nor is there a cheap option.

But with more extreme weather conditions predicted as global temperatures rise, the government is under pressure to commit to and improve alternative routes.

What happened: Last month a landslip near Gordonville Crossing, triggered by severe local rainfall, closed Waterfall Way in both directions between Horseshoe Road and Boggy Creek Road.

About 50 tonnes of rock and dirt fell onto the road on January 19. Specialist engineers and geotechnical experts, along with Bellingen Shire Council staff, attended the site. As they were working to clear the debris, a further 150 tonnes came down.

The 26-metre-high slope has continued to move with active landslips and Waterfall Way remains closed, with no date for when it will reopen. 

What is being done: On Thursday, the NSW Government announced it will undertake a detailed corridor assessment of Waterfall Way, Summervilles Road and other roads between Bellingen and Dorrigo, to investigate short term fixes and potential, long-term upgrades to access, including alternate routes during extreme weather.

The assessment, led by Transport for NSW, is expected to be complete in the second half of this year.

Extreme weather expected to get worse: Climate scientist David Karoly told the Mid North Coaster in 2025 that the rise in ocean and atmospheric temperatures meant more moisture in the atmosphere, which led to an increase in extreme rainfall.

And extreme rainfall means more landslips.

Minister for Recovery and the North Coast, Janelle Saffin, said the upcoming assessment is “a critical step in our commitment to building back better and ensuring our regional roads can withstand the increasing frequency of extreme weather events”.

Millions spent: Since 2021, works on Waterfall Way have cost the state government $100 million, including more than $50 million on the stretch between Bellingen and Dorrigo.

• “We have invested heavily in Waterfall Way and will continue to do so, but we also need a viable alternative for the times this road is impacted by severe weather,” Minister for Roads, Jenny Aitchison said in a statement.

“This should not be a political issue, but the reality is this region has been represented by the Liberals and Nationals for decades and the upgrades Waterfall Way needed were not delivered.”

The Liberals and Nationals held government in NSW from 2011 to 2023. 

Nationals MP for Oxley Michael Kemp said the frequency of closures on Waterfall Way was “unacceptable”.

• “We need real resilience built into this road, urgent upgrades to Summervilles Road as the key alternative route during closures, and we need funding committed to a case study on a long term alternative corridor,” Kemp said in a social media post.

In the meantime, mini-buses are running along the Summervilles Road taking students back to school returning this week.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back on Friday morning with another newsie, in the meantime, keep an eye on our Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and website for local news updates.

👋 Ellie