Looking for action in flood plan

By Kylie Knight and Nick Crockford

With storm season looming, residents in two flood-prone streets are anxiously waiting for Moreton Bay City Council to implement its five-point flood mitigation plan.

Moreton Daily sat down with Councillor Karl Winchester in a bid to understand how it will be actioned.

Councillors unanimously passed a motion at the August 27 general meeting adopting the five-point action plan to install new stormwater inlet pits, temporary flood barriers, and perform ‘more regular inspections’ and clearing of critical stormwater infrastructure.

The plan also includes a ‘Drainage Improvement and Flood Mitigation Study’ and to lobby the State and Federal Governments for a property buyback program.

The motion comes as residents in Grant and Shields streets prepare for storm season and continue to count the financial and emotional cost of devasting flooding in 2015, 2022 and twice earlier this year.

Parts of the stormwater system in Grant and Shields streets date back to the 1960s and 80s, and do not meet council’s current design standards.

Resident Lucy Salerno addressed council during the meeting, saying the issue was “not rainwater coming down, but storm water coming up”.

“We have a culvert leading to the ocean at the end of the street, but water doesn’t make it out there, it seems to back up through drains and into our homes.”

Ms Salerno says her home insurance has “almost tripled” since the 2022 flood and “other owners are now so affected their properties are uninsurable”.

Since council passed the motion, fellow resident Rachael Greany has written to Mayor Peter Flannery expressing deep frustration by a lack of “genuine action” and detail in the plan.

Cr Winchester has committed to providing residents with the detail they seek – as a group or individually – and agreed they needed certainty.

He says the first step will be to clear the stormwater network of debris, conduct CCTV checks to ensure there are no blockages, and increase maintenance.

Additional inlet pits will be “installed to improve drainage performance during minor storm events and facilitate more efficient floodwater removal during severe weather”.

Council will also look at implementing temporary flood barriers which can be quickly moved into position to protect properties, when needed.

Cr Winchester says these measures can happen “relatively quickly”.

“Knowing we’re going into a storm season, clearing all the drains and knowing they are clean and operating as effectively as possible is the highest priority right now,” he says.

Need for long-term solution

Longer term, council will conduct a Flood Mitigation Study to assess drainage performance and “identify flood mitigation opportunities”.

Multiple flood studies have previously been done in the area including in 2000 by Redcliffe City Council and 2010, 2014 and 2014-15 by Moreton Bay Regional Council.

“The previous studies had different rationales behind them. The most recent one was about how to effectively eliminate flooding for the purposes of increasing development in the street,” Cr Winchester explains.

“What I’m looking for in that study is how to best support residents, as they are now, by upgrading our stormwater network.”

He says water appears to travel from near the showgrounds and large fields on Klingner Rd to Grant St.

“Residents want to see council have an open mind and a refreshed approach at looking at the flood mitigation in the long term. Is it about upgrading Grant St or is it about diverting that water so it doesn’t go down there in the first place?

“When you look at the action plan, there are things that can happen effectively right now in the short term and in the longer term. The big project would still require the feasibility study and possibly take longer. That’s why we need to do these other immediate measures as quickly as possible in the meantime.”

Cr Winchester says a timeline has not yet been set for the study, but he will provide it to residents when it is available.

Council will also lobby the State and Federal Governments to reintroduce a buyback program for the small number of properties for which mitigation is not an option.

“It’s something we need, not just for Grant St but for other sites across the City of Moreton Bay,” Cr Winchester says.

“We had a program in place, after the 2022 floods, that’s expired. What we’re saying is there is still high risk out there and we know these events are going to happen more frequently.

“I am optimistic because I think the other governments will see sense in joining with us in coming up with outcomes that are to the benefit of residents. I don’t think there are, for some of these houses, any other way of dealing with this matter than going through a buyback program.”