Given the hottest temperatures keep being recorded year after year, and the uncertainty ahead with extreme weather events, how is Byron Shire Council planning to alleviate the effects from the next large flood event?
Part of local government’s flood management response is through the NSW Floodplain Management Program, which helps communities build resilience against flooding, reduce potential losses, and make informed decisions about flood risk management.
It aligns with the NSW government’s Flood Risk Management Manual.
The Echo asked Council staff to confirm whether the funding deadline was missed for a new Floodplain Management Program, given the current 2020 program is out-of-date.
Council have funding for program
Council’s Flood and Drainage Engineer, Steve Twohill, replied that Council have funding for the Flood Risk Management Grant program to update the flood study for the Belongil and Tallow Creek catchments. ‘This work will start in August 2024’.
‘We intend to apply for future funding for the North Byron Flood Study as part of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) program’.
This week, Council announced work will start on the Bangalow Flood Study.
Another aspect of being an informed community is 2022 flood data supplied by the public, which has not been published by Council.
A technical report on the 2022 flood impacts of the north of the shire has been released by the NSW government.
It’s called The Post 2022 Event Flood Behaviour Analysis – Brunswick River, and while the data was presented, it was only as deviations from modelled levels.
Cannot verify data accuracy
Mr Twohill replied as to why: ‘The public did provide the information with NSW Public Works organising surveyors to undertake the collection of the data and distribution to the relevant Northern Rivers councils. This data is not currently on Council’s website, as we cannot verify its accuracy’.
Yet it appears behind closed doors, staff appear to agree that they could produce publicly supplied 2022 flood levels.
Cr Duncan Dey previously told The Echo, ‘All that is needed is a modest $10,000 budget for computer modelling. This would iron out the community-supplied information’.
Another member of the Floodplain Advisory Committee, Matthew Lambourne, has previously told The Echo all previous similar flood reports had included public supplied data.
Levels relevant
Mr Twohill added, ‘Council’s current development control plans, in relation to flood planning levels, are either at or above the 2022 flood event, which was the largest recorded event in the Northern Rivers. Therefore, the flood planning levels, currently contained in Council’s Development Control Plan Chapter C2 Areas Affected by Flood, remain, unchanged and relevant.
Mayor Michael Lyon has previously supported staff’s position on flood data during Council meetings.
Cr Dey said, ‘What staff are saying is that minimum floor levels (MFLs) specified via the current planning system (for urban sites in the North Byron area) are above what occurred in 2022. Even if this is true, it ignores the half-metre freeboard that creates those MFLs’.
Cr Dey said, ‘What it really means is that the 2022 flood gobbled up all the freeboard in some locations. What we really want is for MFLs to be high and dry by half a metre, compared to a 2050 flood. That did not happen in 2022’.
Tweed Shire Council recently exhibited its updated and expanded Tweed Valley Flood Study, which uses computer models calibrated from the 2022 floods.
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