The Headland. News for the Mid North Coast. Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, the Macleay, Nambucca and Bellinger.

Flood Recovery + the Reconstruction Authority

Flood recovery

The 22 to 25 May 2025 Mid North Coast flood was a once-in-a-generation event, with a record river peak, a Macleay levee breach at Kempsey and homes damaged across the region. Its recovery is this masthead's running story. We cover it from the NSW Reconstruction Authority's own program pages and ministerial releases, council decisions, the Local Health District's service updates and named community organisations.

Every casualty, home and dollar figure is verified against the Authority's own pages before we cite it, and the recovery is written as public policy: the levees, the buybacks, the land-use calls, the grants and the money. It is never written on an identifiable flood-affected household's private circumstances.

Flood Recovery + the Reconstruction Authority

Where the Mid North Coast flood recovery sits: the $56.3 million package shows a region in the long middle

More than a year after the record May 2025 flood, the most recent recovery marker is a $56.3 million package announced in April 2026. Its shape is the story: nearly half is cleanup, the rest is riverbank and coastal repair and the slow human tail of mental health support, legal help and community resilience. A read of what phase the recovery is in.

24 July 2026