Michael McKenna and Andrew Fraser
AT the end of August, Anna Bligh’s bureaucrat husband, Greg Withers, filed an application for federal funding for a novel research project.
This was just as Queensland was entering its wettest spring on record.
Withers, the assistant director-general of the state’s Office of Climate Change, had been warned of a catastrophic scenario in which the forces of nature combined to flood much of the state’s coastal region.
Despite Queensland experiencing seasonal monsoonal rains and three successive summers of widespread flooding, Withers admitted the threat of simultaneous river flooding and storm-tide inundation had never been properly investigated.
“Current projections (CSIRO & BOM) suggest that eight out of the 13 Queensland regions are coastal areas, which will experience changes in flooding associated with storm surge, rainfall and cyclonic events,” Withers wrote in the August 31 funding bid.
“The simultaneous occurrence of these storm tide events with
riverine flooding will exacerbate flooding levels. There has been very little research on the impact of these combined events to inform emergency response and planning constraints.”
Within months, the document has proved prophetic.
The onslaught of heavy December rains was compounded by Christmas Day’s Cyclone Tasha to bring the hypothesised “coincident flooding” along the coast, cutting off Bundaberg and Rockhampton.
Communities in southern Queensland have also been affected, with St George preparing for floods this weekend, while people started returning yesterday to the town of Condamine after being ordered to evacuate last week.
As local, state and federal authorities move into their third week of battling Queensland’s worst flooding in memory, questions are being asked about the preparedness of all levels of government for such a disaster and the long-term impact of future planning.
An investigation by The Weekend Australian can reveal that flooded towns such as Emerald, in its rush to cater for the surrounding mining boom, have allowed whole tracts of residential and industrial development to occur on flood plains, using planning based on photographs and “notches on trees” of the high-water mark from the 1950 floods.
Source: www.heraldsun.com.au
