$5.6M Tender Awarded to Connect Coastal Villages to Sewer Network
Published on 17 July 2025
Bellinger River at Mylestom (drone footage)
The next phase of the Sewering Coastal Villages project has received the green light from Bellingen Shire Council, with the awarding of a $5.6 million tender to Ledonne Construction Pty Ltd.
The tender covers the installation of 226 individual Pressure Sewer units in the villages of Mylestom and Raleigh, the installation of compliant property sanitary drainage works where necessary, and the associated construction of approximately 5,500m of street mains.
Ashley Greenwood, Deputy General Manager Operations for Bellingen Shire Council, describes the Sewering Coastal Villages project as the single biggest infrastructure project ever undertaken by Council, funded by more than $11 million from the NSW Government’s Safe and Secure Water Program, and over $27 million from Bellingen Shire Council.
“The first phase of the project, which was to upgrade the Urunga Sewage Treatment Plant so that it was able to receive and process the extra waste water from the coastal villages, is nearly complete,” said Mr Greenwood.
“The second phase of the project has been divided into two parts – the first being the construction of new sewer infrastructure, such as sewer pump stations and rising mains, for Mylestom and Raleigh.
“The second part, which this contract covers, is to replace the existing domestic septic tanks in the villages with pressure sewer units, as well as installing the pipes and associated infrastructure to transport the waste water from each house to the sewer pump stations within each village, which then pump the waste water to the Urunga Sewage Treatment Plant.”
Mayor Cr Steve Allan praised the project team for their hard work in delivering this ambitious and technically complex project up to this point.
“The environmental benefits of this project are clear: overloaded or failing septic systems contaminate the groundwater as well as the nearby waters of the Bellinger and Kalang river systems,” said Mayor Allan.
“Not only are there odour and water quality issues, but there are also serious impacts on public health, as well as on the health of our rivers, wetlands, oyster farms and local businesses.”
“This once in a generation project will help protect our beautiful coastal environment, as well as providing a sustainable sewerage service to benefit and meet the needs of our community into the future.”