News · Planning · New Lambton

Newcastle endorsed a landslide risk map over 37 New Lambton lots. It would end complying development there

The map reaches past the 16 residential properties evacuated after the May 2025 slip, because the council’s geotechnical report found a broader area that may be susceptible to land movement. An interim council policy has applied since 8 September: development applications there should come with a site-specific geotechnical report, and planning certificates will carry advice that the land has the potential to be impacted by landslide. The change to the local environmental plan goes next to the state for a gateway determination; the council’s timeline anticipates the plan being made in July 2027.

The Hunter Ledger · 8 October 2026 · 5 primary sources, read 7 and 8 October 2026

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The short answer. If you own one of the 37 lots on Russell Road, Baker Street, Victoria Street, Portland Place or Curzon Road that City of Newcastle’s planning proposal lists around the New Lambton landslide, two things apply. One is already in force: since 8 September 2026 an interim council policy says a development application there should be supported by a site-specific geotechnical report prepared by a suitably qualified geotechnical engineer, and a planning certificate for the land will carry advice that the land has the potential to be impacted by landslide. The other is proposed: a new clause and map in the Newcastle Local Environmental Plan 2012 which, the proposal says, means that complying development cannot be carried out on the Applicable Land. Your zoning does not change. The council says it has contacted the owners of the properties that may be affected.

Why the map is wider than the slip

The landslide began on 23 May 2025, in a severe weather event that led to a natural disaster declaration across the Hunter and Mid North Coast. The council’s report says 16 residential properties and 44 residents were evacuated, and a declared Danger Area still keeps residents out of their homes (report page 4). The planning proposal says that since the first event the landslide has continued to move and grow in extent (page 3).

The council commissioned a detailed geotechnical investigation from RCA Australia, acknowledged by council on 24 February 2026. According to the planning proposal, it found the slip was caused by heavy rainfall and adverse groundwater, and No connection was found between the presence of mine workings beneath the Applicable Land to the landslide. (page 12). It split the ground into two zones: Zone A, with only minor movement, and Zone B, with a deep head scarp, tension cracks and damage to buildings. Because the report concluded the slope cannot be fixed lot by lot, the proposal treats both zones as a single landslide-prone area (page 4). The council report puts it plainly: the map extends beyond the properties directly affected by the May 2025 landslide because the RCA Report identified a broader area with geotechnical conditions that may be susceptible to land movement. (pages 1 to 2).

Two zones, one rule: the proposal applies the same controls to Zone A land that has moved only a little as to Zone B land with significant instability. The proposal quotes the RCA report’s own line that all areas and properties in the affected area will require specific geotechnical advice (page 12). It also leaves the door open beyond New Lambton: Further areas outside of the mapped Applicable Land and scope of the Planning Proposal may be investigated in the future to determine landslide risk. (page 15).

What applies now, and what would change

Two documents do two jobs. The interim policy, approved by the chief executive and in force from 8 September 2026, tells applicants what the council will generally ask for and weigh. The report says it does not replace statutory planning instruments and does not prohibit development (page 2). The planning proposal would put the rule into the local environmental plan itself, which it says Creates a legally binding requirement for development stakeholders to ensure landslide risk is appropriately considered (page 13).

The complying development row is the reason the council gives for the change. Its report says that until the NLEP 2012 is amended, there is a risk that development may proceed without a development application or without mandatory consideration of the site-specific landslide risks identified by the RCA Report. (page 3). The policy also says the mapped area may be updated from time to time to reflect new information, including post rainfall movement of land (page 2).

Where the recovery stands

The plan change is about future building on the slope, not about the 16 evacuated households. On their recovery, the council’s report says council resolved in July 2025 to seek an NSW Government Act of Grace payment for affected ratepayers, and that The Minister for Recovery refused this request in a letter dated 23 December 2025. (page 4). In February 2026 council resolved to ask the NSW Reconstruction Authority to urgently consider state-funded hardship and rental assistance for displaced residents.

On 22 May 2026 the council said it was working with the Reconstruction Authority to finalise a funding package to enable the demolition of properties affected by the New Lambton landslip and compensate residents for the loss of their land. Its chief executive, Jeremy Bath, said residents would move to a 12-month relocation package funded by the NSW Government, that the funding needed state and federal contributions which are not committed yet, and that demolition was not likely to start until early 2027. The council’s latest update, on 15 September, says new geotechnical investigations began that month to plan long-term stabilisation, that monitoring has not recorded any significant movement or trends that indicate the size of the landslip zone has increased, and that the timing of an approved funding program is still to be determined.

The council has also resolved to keep giving affected landowners a rates rebate until they sell or can move back in, as it did in 2025-26, according to its 5 June update. It said in April it expected about $2.6 million in landslip costs in the 2025-26 financial year, money not in its adopted budget.

What happens next

Council carried the recommendation on 22 September without a recorded division; the unconfirmed minutes record it as Carried (pages 10 to 11). It endorsed sending the proposal to the state planning department for a gateway determination, requesting the role of planning proposal authority; the proposal’s timeline has the council exercising the local plan-making functions. The proposal sets public exhibition at 28 days or as the gateway directs (page 31), and the report says exhibition will include written notification to property owners, and adjoining and nearby property owners (page 4). Owners in and outside the affected area can make a submission, it says.

Our view

This section is opinion, built on the facts above.

Mapping the whole slope rather than the 16 broken properties is the right call, and the council has the evidence for it: its own geotechnical report says the slope can only be fixed as one piece, so a renovation on a Zone A lot is a question about Zone B. What the documents also show is a gap. By the council’s own account, until the plan is amended there is a risk that development may proceed without a development application, and its timeline anticipates closing that in July 2027, more than two years after the slip. A gateway that comes back quickly would shorten that.

For owners at the edge of the map, the planning certificate advice is the part with consequences today, and it arrived by an operational policy approved by the chief executive, while the plan change will go on public exhibition. The fair test of the exhibition will be whether those owners get a real hearing on where the line falls. We will add the gateway determination and the exhibition dates to this story when they are published.

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