Residents of Dubbo in western NSW have gone close to eight years without fluoride in their tap water. That was not the result of a vote. It was the result of equipment that stopped working and took years to replace.
Under NSW law, councils can ask to fluoridate, but only the Secretary of NSW Health can approve a supply being discontinued. In practice, Dubbo's experience shows a supply can stop being dosed for years without any formal decision being made at all.
The timeline
- Dubbo's dosing stopped in January 2019.
- A January 2023 ABC report flagged that Dubbo and Wellington had gone without fluoride for years. Council said Wellington's dosing resumed that month with a new pump, and its water page still said so in October 2025.
- Council awarded a contract to repair and replace the dosing equipment. Public Works then took over the work.
- An earlier target of August to September 2026 was missed.
- The contractor's latest program schedules commissioning and operator training from 3 November 2026, with formal handover by 10 November.
Council describes the date as a "programmed target rather than an unconditional guarantee", because testing must first confirm the equipment works correctly.
"It's taking a lot longer and, every day, more time seems to be added to it." Cr Mathew Dickerson, Dubbo Regional Council
"We awarded the contract, but Public Works took over the work so it's out of our hands." Cr Mathew Dickerson
Why this matters, whatever your view
Whether you want fluoride in your water or not, you are entitled to know what is in it. For most of the past eight years, many Dubbo residents could reasonably have assumed their water was fluoridated when it was not. Families who rely on fluoridated water for their children's teeth, and families who were buying filters to remove it, were both working from the wrong information.
Dubbo is not alone. Coonabarabran has had no fluoride since December 2015. Mudgee has had none since June 2020, Cobar since 2019, and Bowral since July 2025. See the full list of NSW outages.