In NSW, a council can't simply decide to stop fluoridating. Under the 1957 Act, only the Secretary of NSW Health can approve discontinuing a supply. Yet across the state, towns have gone months or years without fluoride, with no vote and little public notice. The cause is almost always the same: broken or ageing dosing equipment, slow approvals for replacements, or a lack of trained operators.
Whatever your view on fluoride, this is a transparency problem. Residents who want it aren't getting it. Residents who don't want it may be paying for filters they don't need. Nobody is being told clearly.
Currently off, or recently off
- Tweed Shire (Murwillumbah, Tweed Heads): the main supply, fluoridated since 1976, was switched off on 25 November 2025 for tank repairs. A global fluoride supply shortage then delayed the restart. Dosing resumed in August 2026, after about nine months.
- Wingecarribee (Bowral, Mittagong, Moss Vale): dosing was "temporarily paused" in July 2025. In June 2026 it was still off, awaiting approval for a new system.
- Mudgee: dosing stopped in June 2020. In 2024 the replacement plant was still awaiting approval.
- Cobar: no fluoride since 2019. The new treatment plant's dosing capacity has never been used.
- Dubbo: no fluoride since January 2019. A restart was scheduled for early November 2026. Full story.
- Warrumbungle Shire: Coonabarabran off since December 2015. Baradine and Binnaway off since January 2017. Coolah and Mendooran had dosing systems installed that never operated.
- Lake Cargelligo: started in July 2020, stopped again on 12 February 2025 due to operational issues.
- Glen Innes: stopped in 2014 when the old plant failed. Council says reintroduction is "planned" with NSW Health.
- Nyngan: offline since October 2015. Bogan Shire expects a new system in 2026.
- Uralla: offline since February 2024, with the system being replaced.
- Gilgandra: the dosing system was discontinued; the 2025-26 budget sets aside $130,000 to bring it back.
- Jindabyne and Berridale: dosing "paused" since 21 November 2024 for plant maintenance, with no resumption notice we could find.
- South West Rocks: dosing failed on 12 January and again on 21 February 2025, and didn't reach target until 8 April.
Back on after long gaps
- Bourke: restarted 2 September 2024 after about eight years off.
- Cowra: offline from January 2023, resumed October 2024.
- Condobolin: off from March 2024, back on 22 May 2025.
- Muswellbrook: paused for an upgrade, restarted 2 April 2026.
- Port Macquarie: paused in the 2019 drought, resumed 2021.
Approved, but never switched on
- Murrurundi: fluoridation was approved in 2014 and again in 2018. Its 2025-26 results show only natural fluoride, 0.13 to 0.15 mg/L.
- Merimbula and Eden: Bega Valley council voted in 2018 to extend fluoride. These towns still read under 0.11 mg/L, waiting on a new treatment plant due in 2027.
- Coolah and Mendooran: dosing systems installed but never operated.
On, but below target
NSW targets 1.0 mg/L, with results required to stay between 0.9 and 1.5 mg/L. Several supplies report averages well under that:
- Broken Hill: new equipment in June 2024, but readings fell to 0.10 to 0.70 mg/L in the March 2026 quarter and averaged just 0.16 mg/L in the June quarter. We now list it as effectively unfluoridated.
- Nambucca Valley: 2024 average of 0.56 mg/L.
- Hay: 2025 mean of 0.58 mg/L, with some below-target results.
- Batlow: 2025 average of 0.40 mg/L, from just two samples.
Is anything changing?
Yes, slowly. In January 2026, NSW Health's fluoridation committee agreed councils should publish fluoride results online, and that new operating conditions will require utilities to tell the public about long outages. Utilities are already required to notify NSW Health within 3 working days if a supply goes unfluoridated for more than 24 hours, but that notice goes to the department, not to residents. A change to the Regulation to require public notice is planned for 2027. NSW Health already funds 100% of fluoridation equipment and operator training, which makes multi-year outages harder to explain.