As a council we plan for houses, jobs and infrastructure to support our city’s growth, however it is important we plan to live safely.
We are currently undertaking a major update to our Flood Study Review Program to ensure our residents are aware of their property’s potential risk of flooding.
These studies are in line with State Planning Policy and recommendations from the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry for local governments to share flood risk information with the community.
Council has a responsibility to act with the safety of our community in mind and we are committed to making important information available to community in a timely manner.
The Flood Studies Review Program considers new rainfall and river level data, changes in our growing city, and the latest technology, standards and industry best practice. It also includes consideration of the possible effects of climate change.
The mapping depicts the potential flood risk from a weather event that has a 1% chance of happening, or a 1 in 100 chance, in any year. The flood event earlier this year was the highest since 1974 and was roughly between a 1 in 50 and 1 in 20 chance.
In the meantime, new risk categories are currently under development and will be applied to properties with the potential to flood to guide the type of land use and development that will be permitted.
The categories will identify flood risk according to the potential depth of flooding and how slow or fast the water may move across an area during a flood.
More than 260 homes were inundated above floor level by floodwater in February and March this year and the devastation caused cannot be underestimated. We can’t stop severe weather events or control where and when rain falls, but by understanding our flood risk we can better protect our community.
In some areas the level of flood risk will increase because of our improved understanding of flooding and updated data and modelling. We understand this means that some homes, businesses or parcels of land may have a higher flood risk than previously considered.
Council has started contacting impacted property owners and we are committed to having conversations with those residents to keep them informed.
It’s important that we understand more extreme weather events will occur and we need to be prepared as best we can.
