Drive 30 minutes from Byron Bay to Lismore and the water changes. Byron Shire's town supply has no added fluoride. Lismore and Ballina have had it since 2015, and Casino (on its own Richmond Valley supply) since 2009.
How the split happened
In November 2013, Byron Shire Council decided against fluoridation. Its neighbours buy water in bulk from Rous Water (now Rous County Council), and NSW Health directed Rous to fluoridate the water it supplies to Lismore City, Ballina Shire and parts of Richmond Valley. Rous's network excludes Nimbin, Wardell and Casino, which has its own fluoridated supply.
Fluoride began flowing in September 2015 from four dosing plants (Clunes, Corndale, Dorroughby and Knockrow). Clunes residents were first. Byron Shire town water customers, and those on the separate Nimbin supply, were excluded.
The fight
The rollout was contested at every step. Campaigners took legal action and held rallies calling on Rous to reverse its decision. A complaint was lodged against Rous's general manager. A Lismore bakery installed filters to remove fluoride from its water. Fluoride was an issue at the 2016 local elections.
The Clunes plant went briefly offline weeks after it started, in late 2015, before being restarted.
A decade on
Byron remains one of the best-known places in Australia that does not add fluoride, largely because of long-standing community opposition. A public dentist in northern NSW told the Sydney Morning Herald in October 2026 that she regularly treats extensive decay in children from families who avoid fluoride. Many Byron residents say the choice should be theirs to make.
Further north, Tweed Shire's main supply (Murwillumbah, Tweed Heads) has been fluoridated since 1976, though it was switched off for nine months from November 2025. Read about the NSW outages.