AUSTRALIA STATE OF PLAY 2024: when repeated warnings are given concerning climate change-induced risk along vulnerable coastal shorelines and on floodplains but few in the three tiers of government appear to take heed

 

Almost two decades ago in 2009 the Australian Government's Dept. of Climate Change in a first pass assessment warned the nation:

"Over the last 6,000–7,000 years sea level around Australia has been relatively stable, which has generally allowed current landforms and ecosystems to persist without large scale modifications.

Since 1788 settlements have been built along our coast in expectation that sea level would remain broadly unchanged. Significant settlement of low-lying areas has occurred, and structures were designed and built to standards defined by a relatively narrow period of experience.

Those conditions are now changing. A new climate era driven by global warming will increase risks to settlements, industries, the delivery of services and natural ecosystems within Australia’s coastal zone."

At least a decade ago it was reported in the media that the Insurance Council of Australia considered that it would not be the high cost of repair to residential properties in the 7-10km wide coastal strip most at risk of inundation and/or land slippage which would make these homes uninsurable – it would be the fact that the land on which such housing was built had become worthless.

By 2011 Australian coastal local governments were acknowledging the issue of land valuation and future liability on residential lot owners.

"A number of respondents highlighted the potential risk to existing private homes and the possibility of future depopulation and disinvestment in exposed locations. Similarly, local planners expressed difficulties in evaluating decisions that may quarantine future development potential on private land.

“There’s a big social dilemma – how do you tell someone their land is worthless and they can’t develop it?” (local government participant, March 2011).

One climate change consultant described a bifurcation whereby site based assessments fail to consider issues of transport and services. This means that individual sites might be approved for development due to their elevation, but lack secure provisions for road access via existing or planned road reservations. It was suggested that servicing these sites may become a future liability for local government areas.

“The house might be safe but the road’s going to be underwater and it’s going to be unsafe for access. If local governments are going to accept development in the areas where this additional service cost to maintain access or service [will arise], they’ll have to have a strategy to suggest that they impose that additional cost on the residents who choose to live in these places, but that’s not yet been resolved” (private sector consultant, March 2011)."

[Syd Uni Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, Gurran, N et al in Report No. 4 for the National Sea Change Taskforce November 2011, "Planning for climate change adaptation in Coastal Australia: State of practice", pp 26-27]

Such warnings with regard to very real climate change risks to coastal urban areas have been repeated again and again in the years since.

In 2022 financial services and analytics firm CoreLogic announced that calculations based on 30 years of tidal & shoreline retreat data indicated $5.3 billion worth of properties were at very high risk within 800 metres of the shoreline, and another $19.5 billion were at high risk. With dramatic changes to vulnerable coastlines within the next 30 years.

By October 2023 the Australian Government National Emergency Management Agency and the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience had put their names to a warning that coastal properties with est. value of $25 billion were at "substantial risk" due to coastal erosion and inundation.

In particular noting: As calls from homeowners for greater protection from coastal erosion increase, the effects of bad decisions (e.g. building seawalls) will become more critical. Local governments needs to address coastal erosion adaptation and the equity between politics, private rights, environmental protections and public amenities of the beachfront.

Further noting: Australian coastal communities will become increasingly vulnerable to rising sea levels and extreme weather events and many beachfront properties will become stranded assets due to loss of property values as well as insurance and banking sectors retracting from the coastal property market. The Reserve Bank of Australia modelled that the number of high-risk properties could grow by over 74,000 due to climate change (Bellrose, Norman & Royters 2021).

Despite these warnings state governments have stubbornly resisted meaningful changes to planning policy and legislation. While both state and local governments generally have further entrenched internal cultures highly resistant to curbing the ambitions of both small and large professional property developers and land speculators - particularly those in the approx.100km wide & 29,900km long mainland coastal zone (including Tasmania) with its est. 49 per cent of soft shore lines and associated coastal rivers, estuaries and flood plains.

Digital Earth Australia, Geoscience Australia-CSIRO mapping of incidence from 1988 onwards showing most pronounced coastal shoreline loss by m/year in gradients of pale pink to red.

When it comes to riverine or sea water inundation this latest warning is quite specific.

The Daily Telegraph, 15 June 2024:

The Going Under Report predicts the seaside holiday village, which was completely cut off during the floods in 2022, has a 56.63 per cent risk of becoming uninsurable by 2030.

The report analysed close to fifteen million addresses in fifteen thousand suburbs across Australia.

According to the report, by 2030 588,857 (or 21 one per cent) of Australian homes will ‘have exposure to some level of riverine flooding’ with NSW by far the most impacted.

An Insurance Council of Australia spokesperson responded to the report findings stating the current risk to 230,000 Australian properties is a five per cent risk “of catastrophic flooding each year”.

“More than half of these (123,475) are in New South Wales, with the bulk of the remainder in Queensland and Victoria,” said the spokesperson.

NSW's most uninsurable towns

In NSW, 206,622 individual homes were identified as being at high risk of becoming uninsurable by 2030. This compares with 382,235 homes in all other states put together.

While the Climate Council’s Nicki Hutley told The Daily Telegraph the report findings were a reflection of updated climate science, the University of NSW (UNSW)’s Climate Research Centre Professor Andrew Pitman disagrees.

“The science behind this report isn’t robust but that doesn’t mean there aren’t risks from climate change and an imperative to act according to climate science risk.” he said.

Grafton’s Clarence Valley Council Councillor Greg Clancy told The Daily Telegraph that options for towns like Grafton, built when the river was used for transport, include relocation....

While these are an option for river towns like Grafton with existing residences, Mr Clancy raised concerns about new developments in flood prone areas such as a controversial application for a $48 million 284 lot subdivision at Mile Street in Yamba.

The Going Under Report predicts the seaside holiday village, which was completely cut off during the floods in 2022, has a 56.63 per cent risk of becoming uninsurable by 2030.

This concerns Mr Clancy who personally opposed the “flood plain development” application which is currently being determined by the Northern Regional Planning Panel, which assesses and determines regionally significant development applications.

“Basically, the developers would be creating islands, so the new houses are going to be on fill but will get cut off,” he said.

A spokesperson from the Insurance Council of Australia said that “in December 2022, National Cabinet tasked planning ministers to develop a national standard for considering disaster and climate risk and declaration that “the days of developing on flood plains need to end”.

“The ICA strongly supports the decision and has long been calling for governments to commit to stopping development in areas of high flood risk and commence work on planning reform with appropriate risk mitigation on flood plains,” the spokesperson said....

Coastal towns and villages on floodplains that empty into oceans are well aware of the triple threat climate change brings into their homes:

• the high volume concentrated rain dumps which create flash flooding, inundate low lying points within town/village boundaries and overwhelm the stormwater system;

• record breaking river flooding which stretches almost to breaking point both the community & local emergency services capacity to respond; and

• the dangers of a twin event where a strong sea storm surge meets a river flood front, forcing more water into the river or estuary at the same time the flood front unable to travel unimpeded out to sea spreads across coastal land increasing flood height and duration there.

Yesterday Northern NSW communities gave evidence at NSW Legislative Council's Portfolio Committee No. 7 – Planning and Environment Inquiry into the Planning system and the impacts of climate change on the environment and communities.

I listened via the live feed to the morning of that hearing day, as representatives of their communities from South West Rocks, Coffs Harbour, Yamba, Maclean and Evans Head spoke with authority and insight about the very real climate change-induced risks they already face, the increased dangers predicted to occur as the climate crisis deepens and, drew attention to the lack of political will within state & local government, absence of detailed strategic planning required to avoid or at least significantly mitigate against destructive changes to flood & stormwater behaviour frequently caused by inappropriate large-scale development and, need to cease further urban development on floodplains and in the immediate vicinity of vulnerable coastlines.

When the 17 June hearing transcript is posted on the NSW Parliament website, a summary containing the principal arguments and observations will be posted on North Coast Voices.

How one e-conveyancing firm ranks NSW coastal erosion, flooding and bushfire risks from 2023-2043

 

In its own words, InfoTrack is a leading SaaS technology innovator and has been the pioneer of e-conveyancing since 2000....From the moment a title search is performed on a property to be listed for sale through to settlement, InfoTrack’s platform transforms plain text into intelligent data that moves seamlessly between the real estate agent, the lawyer, the mortgagee and the seller.

Since November 2023 InfoTrack has been sending out media releases concerning current and expected climate change impacts most often mentioned in coastal zones - erosion, flooding and bushfires:

# From the Harbour to the Hunter, the Northern Beaches tots on the NSW coastal zone the Northern Rivers, the New South Wales suburbs most impacted by coastal erosion have been revealed, along with the 20 locations to be worst affected in the future;

# Rounding out the top five are Northern New South Wales’ Moree at number two, the Central West’s Forbes at number three, Walgett in the State’s North at number four, and the Riverina’s Moama at five.

Popular tourist locations also feature – the beautiful coastal town of Yamba, a mecca with holidaymakers, is named at number eight, Grafton in the Northern Rivers comes in at number 13, with bustling Port Macquarie, on the mid north coast, at number 15. The Central Western town of Dubbo sneaks in at number 20 on the list.....

“The data and models use high-resolution topographical data, detailed land cover information, and advanced weather models to accurately simulate flood depths and extents,” Mr Montagnani said.

“This comprehensive evaluation, provided by Royal HaskoningDHV’s division Twinn, encompasses various scenarios, including surface water, river, and tidal flooding, and integrates state-of-the-art climate models to provide flood risk assessments in the context of climate change.”

Interestingly, all the suburbs listed as most at risk now, remain the most at-risk decades from now.

Grafton is slightly more at risk of flooding in the future, going from 13 on the list of suburbs affected by flooding now, to 12 on the list of suburbs most impacted in 30 years, effectively swapping places with Condobolin; and

# Off the back of sweltering temperatures across New South Wales, new data has been released naming the top 20 suburbs most impacted by bushfires now, along with the locations to be most affected in the future.

Blue Mountains National Park comes in at number one currently, with Colo Vale in the Southern Highlands, and Booligal in the Riverina rounding out the top three, according to Groundsure ClimateIndex™ reports, available through InfoTrack.

Also making the Top 20 are popular Blue Mountains suburbs Kurrajong Heights (number 6), Blackheath (number 14), and Bilpin (number 13), and the Hawkesbury’s Lower Portland (number 19).

Northern NSW towns and villages feature in all three tables.

*click on all tables to enlarge*

Erosion

IMAGE: InfoTrack in Nationwide News, 14.11.23

Flooding

IMAGE: InfoTrack

Bushfires

IMAGE: InfoTrack

Prospective homebuyers can search a property address via InfoTrackGO to purchase a Groundsure ClimateIndex™ for that residence.

Federal parliamentary inquiry into insurer response to the 2022 floods & other matters gets the go ahead on 7 August 2023

Hon Stephen Jones MP, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, media release, 3 August 2023:

Insurance claims handling under the microscope in parliamentary inquiry into insurer responses to the 2022 floods

Today, the Assistant Treasurer will give notice to the House of Representatives tabling a motion to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into insurer responses to the 2022 floods. The motion will be presented to the house on the next day of sitting, Monday 7 August.

The inquiry will take a whole of economy view of the ongoing challenges faced by intense and frequent flood events.

It is consumer focussed - investigating land use planning, affordability of coverage, supply chain issues, labour shortages, claims handling, and dispute resolution processes.

The February-March 2022 floods in South‑East Queensland and NSW are the costliest natural disaster for insurance costs, totalling around $5.87 billion, in Australian history.

The Assistant Treasurer has visited the communities impacted by floods in Southeast Queensland with Graham Perrett MP and the Northern Rivers with Janelle Saffin MP; and following a visit to flood ravaged towns in Central West NSW last month announced the inquiry alongside Member for Calare, Andrew Gee MP.

Today, the Albanese Government has released the terms of reference.

The committee will hear directly from affected communities, holding public hearings across the country in regions affected by the 2022 floods. A final report will be handed down during the third quarter of 2024.

The Inquiry will inform the Albanese Government’s broader program of work to address insurance access and affordability. This includes up to $1 billion over five years from 2023-24 (up to $200 million per year) to invest in measures that better protect homes and communities from extreme weather through the flagship Disaster Ready Fund.

The Government is taking proactive steps to mitigate disaster risk and build climate resilient communities. Currently, 97% of disaster funding is going toward recovery and only 3% toward risk mitigation. We want to flip that on its head.

The terms of reference for the inquiry are below.

The Standing Committee on Economics for inquiry and report by quarter 3, 2024:

1. response of insurers to the claims resulting from major 2022 floods, including:

(i) south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales (NSW) floods of February and March 2022;

(ii) Hunter and greater Sydney floods of July 2022;

(iii)Victorian, NSW and Tasmanian floods of October 2022; and

(iv) central west NSW floods of November and December 2022;

2. the inquiry shall have regard to the following matters in respect of the aforementioned floods

(i) the experiences of policyholders before, during and after making claims;

(ii) the different types of insurance contracts offered by insurers and held by policy holders;

(iii) timeframes for resolving claims;

(iv) obstacles to resolving claims, including factors internal to insurers and external, such as access to disaster hit regions, temporary accommodation, labour market conditions and supply chains;

(v) insurer communication with policyholders;

(vi) accessibility and affordability of hydrology reports and assessments to policy holders;

(vii) affordability of insurance coverage to policy holders;

(viii) claimants’ and insurers’ experience of internal dispute resolution processes; and

(ix) the impact of land use planning decisions and disaster mitigation efforts on the availability and affordability of insurance.

3. the inquiry shall also have regard to insurer preparedness for future flood events

4. the inquiry will take into consideration findings from other reports such as Deloitte’s external review of insurers’ responses to the 2022 floods, and ASICs Claims Handling review. 

The House of Representatives agreed to the creation of this inquiry on the afternoon of Monday 7 August 2023.

Nationals MP for Page Hogan fails to understand that neither climate change nor the weather gods obey governments

 

No amount of intervention can stop heavy rain or high tides and, in this age of rapidly changing climate, flood mitigation is not just about building levies and dams.

Flood mitigation now means the implementation of actions to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk of flood-damage to buildings and infrastructure which include building disaster resilience into the reconstruction process, while at the same time lessening the impact on communities.

I for one am glad to see that those four tranches in the Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program will make major road evacuation routes more reliable through road & bridge raising. That extra water pump capacity is entering local government systems and pumping stations will be more flood resilient. While in some council areas town drainage will be upgraded where required and in others earth mounds are being created to manage flood flow direction or provide stock refuge.

It is embarrassing to see that the National Party has learnt so little from the unnatural disasters of 2019-20 and 2022, that Kevin Hogan feel comfortable contributing nothing but grumbles and gripes.

Clarence Valley Independent, 2 August 2023:

Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan has criticised the Albanese Government’s $100 million announcement for 20 projects in the Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program as they won’t lower flood levels.

Last Friday, Federal Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt visited Coraki to announce the latest tranche of funding which will see raised bridges, widened flood channels, and improved drainage in the townships of Woodburn, Coraki, and Lismore as some of the projects.

Mr Watt said the projects would help communities be more prepared for future disasters.

“We know the job is far from done when it comes to recovering from the multiple recent floods, and we continue to work with all levels of government to roll up our sleeves and fast-track work where possible,” he said.

“But while we’re recovering, we must also prepare for the future.

“The majority of these new initiatives will improve community connectivity and economic resilience through transport infrastructure and evacuation route upgrades, and they complement the work we’re doing through other programs, like the Disaster Ready Fund which saw over $17 million invested in Northern Rivers projects in round one.”

New South Wales Minister for Emergency Services, Jihad Dib said the NSW Government is working to reduce the risk natural hazards pose to communities across the state to build resilience.

“The Northern Rivers Recovery and Resilience Program means we can support communities in the region as they prepare for disaster, with the aim of reducing loss of life, the load on our emergency services and the overall impact of natural hazards,” he said.

Projects included in the funding include raising the level of two low set bridges at Tatham to improve access between Casino and Coraki during floods, widening Browns Creek flood channel at Lismore, new and upgraded pump stations, town evacuation plans, plus reforestation and revegetation in the Clarence, Richmond, Tweed and Brunswick catchments to provide nature-based flood mitigation.

But Kevin Hogan says the money should have been used for flood mitigation projects.

“The community would feel exceptionally disappointed by projects announced by the Federal Government today as they contain no effective flood mitigation works,” he said.

“These are all flood resilience projects.

“They are not flood mitigation projects, which is what this funding was intended for.

“Spending on flood mitigation means the level of water would be lower in future flood events.”

The 36 local projects funded under the initiative have been recommended by CSIRO following an $11.4 million review plus extensive community consultation and have been agreed by the Federal and NSW Governments.

Yamba NSW 2023: is anybody listening?

 

The road into Yamba, Clarence Valley NSW, 4 March 2022
Credit: Clarence Valley Council via Storyful in Yahoo!

To put it frankly Yamba township’s flood resilience is a shambles.

Surrounded on all compass points by river, lake or ocean, much of the urban footprint of the town is built on degraded sand hills and reclaimed marshland or swamp across 16.92 sq km of coastal land.

The natural fingers of the Clarence River estuary which intrude into residential streets are now exacerbated by a fringe of canal estates which bring tidal riverwater right up to the artificial soft shore boundary edges of the backyards, side yards or front yards of so many homes and make it possible for riverine flooding to enter more streets than it once did.

Ocean storm surges occurring during destructive East Coast Low storm events are something that are considered almost in passing when it comes to resilience planning and flood risk management. Even though authorities are aware that days of heavy rainfall leading to soil saturation accompanied by strong seas result in est. 1 in 1,000 chance that land slippage will affect sections of Yamba Hill & environs public and private property – including residential dwellings. Such an event can coincide with riverine and stormwater flooding in wider Yamba.

The Lower Clarence River floodplain spans 500km². That is a substantial floodplain and climate change modelling in BMT Lower Clarence Flood Model Update 2013 indicates that all along the lower river peak flood levels are expected to increase in 1% AEP events.

The natural protection of Yamba’s 690ha natural flood storage area has over time been eaten away by extensive landfill earthworks being created in preparation for housing another 2,000-2,500 people in West Yamba. While completed large scale earthworks elsewhere in Yamba are contributing to increased stormwater flooding adding to the volume of flood water flowing in from the Clarence River and into internal waterways and floodways of a town whose current population is 6,388 men women and children living in a density of 377.6 persons per sq km.

Coping with the town’s street plan and road surface heights which lead to predictable internal road closures during major flooding. These closures will inevitably occur ahead of any official advice to immediately evacuate during a Lower Clarence River flood. Currently it appears such emergency advice is not planned to be given until flood height reaches 2.1m at Maclean – at which point Yamba’s only evacuation route is highly likely to be closed in both directions.

In 2022 any evacuation by vehicle ahead of a flood front was calculated to take a minimum of one hour for the journey to Maclean via Yamba Road and the Pacific Highway to be completed. A journey that in good conditions might take twenty minutes. [C. Landers, Clarence Valley Council correspondence, dated 30 June 2022]

When it comes to Yamba residents and visitors; state & local government along with emergence services have placed the primary emphasis on “self-help" when coping with rising floodwaters or a need to evacuate, due to limited SES resources being spread across the valley.

Added to this is the fact that Yamba's flood heights expected ahead of active flood fronts and actual flood front heights as they reach the town are broad estimations. Because the town has to rely on the Maclean flood gauge further inland due to the strong tidal movement at the river mouth which is said to distort any flood calculations derived from the Yamba tidal gauge situated in the vicinity of the start of the southern breakwater wall.

Yamba is an accident waiting to happen and, it does not inspire confidence, when reading between the lines of the following newspaper article it seems that Clarence Valley Council administration is reluctant to obtain a written record of the lived experience of the wider population in Yamba over the last three decades. Something that would complement the data contained in the anticipated report by BMT WBM Pty Ltd.

Clarence Valley Independent, 17 May 2023:

The Yamba Community Action Network Yamba CAN Inc is urging Clarence Valley Council to conduct a flood survey of all residents on the Yamba floodplain so it can be incorporated in the updated Clarence River Flood Study and Flood Model which are currently being prepared.

Consideration of the impacts of the devastating floods in February and March 2022 will be factored into council’s new Flood Study and Flood Model, and Yamba CAN Inc believes the studies would be better informed if a survey was done to understand the impacts on individual residences.

When Yamba CAN recently discovered a flood study being conducted by Coffs Harbour City Council of residents in the Moonee Creek catchment area, members questioned why CVC couldn’t do the same.

Flooding impacts areas of Yamba differently, so to get a comprehensive picture of how the entire Yamba floodplain is affected, Yamba CAN Inc suggests CVC adopt a similar model to Coffs Harbour City Council, by asking each household to describe how they were impacted.

Questions in the Moonee Creek flood survey include: how long have you lived in the region; have you experienced flooding within the Moonee Creek catchment; have you experienced any other flooding event; please provide a short description of any flooding you have experienced; whether your home/business, garage, yard was flooded; were you able to drive your vehicle to safety; what areas of the community are most at risk of flooding; have you noticed any changes in the frequency or severity of flooding in your area and to provide photos and depths of the flooding.

From answers to these questions, Yamba CAN Inc asserts CVC could develop a comprehensive flood model of how individual residences are impacted in times of flood.

The important information obtained from the survey would assist with any upgrading of west Yamba’s stormwater drainage system.

Yamba CAN Inc sent a letter to CVC General Manager Laura Black, and all Clarence Valley Councillors calling for a flood survey of residents living on the Yamba floodplain to be included in the updated Flood Study and Flood Model.

“It has come to Yamba CAN Inc’s attention of another flood study being undertaken by Coffs Harbour City Council in the Moonee Creek Catchment area,” the letter states.

“This flood study includes gathering information from all residents in the Catchment area by means of a survey.

“A similar survey of residents living on the Yamba floodplain is of paramount importance to be included in the current Flood Study and Model, particularly not only in relation to riverine flooding but stormwater flooding during February/March 2022 which occurred two days prior to the Clarence River flood crest reaching Yamba.

“Yamba CAN Inc requests CVC undertake such a survey and the results be considered in the formulation of the current Flood Study and Model.”

A Clarence Valley Council spokesperson said council engaged BMT to undertake flood modelling using the latest available property and event data for the local government area to inform Floodplain Risk Management Plans.

“The plan will be presented to the Council for exhibition, providing opportunity for the community to comment and provide feedback,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said council doesn’t plan to do a survey of impacted residents in Yamba.

“Council does not intend to survey individual households in relation to this matter,” the spokesperson said.

“However, we will be undertaking a Yamba Urban Drainage Survey to capture residents experiences in recent events, as we are currently doing for Iluka.”

Tweed Shire Council and Pottsville residents have managed to keep more residential housing and/or a seniors living estate off local flood prone land

In the first half of 2019 during the last days of Northern Rivers innocence or ignorance of what large scale climate change impacts meant, local governments wrote paragraphs like this in their planning documents based on flood data in some cases already ten years out of date.

‘“low island” means an area that is above the FPL and surrounded on its entire perimeter during and 100 year ARI event, but is inundated by the PMF. When flood levels exceed the FPL, in events up to the PMF, low islands become totally inundated, posing significant risk to isolated residents without flood free access to high land or shelter. Local examples include filled residential estates in Banora Point, West Kingscliff, and Pottsville, and raised dwellings in Chinderah, South Murwillumbah and Rural Villages.…..

A3.2.3 Urban Areas

Levees at Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads South provide structural protection against flood inundation to varying degrees. In other areas, planning controls are used to contain future flood damage. In 2009, a levee was retrofitted along Cudgera Creek to protect the Seabreeze Estate at Pottsville. In the event of a flood exceeding the levee height, the protected areas will flood quickly with little warning time and very rapid rises in water levels.

Council's design flood is based on the 100 year ARI event; that is a flood with a 1 in 100 (or 1%) chance of occurring in any one year.’  [Tweed Development Control Plan SECTION A3 - Development of Flood Liable Land VERSION 1.5 (DRAFT)]

Behind mentions of levee banks and need for early evacuation in flood prone areas in such documents, found in the planning files across seven regional local governments, there still lurked the thought that new housing estates and residential complexes could go ahead because floods could simply be managed by levees, land fill and residential floor heights.

Although at state level there remains environment & planning legislation which hasn’t caught up with life as it is experienced in a changing climate, there are signs that at local government level the new realities associated with the many river systems and coastal floodplains in north east NSW are slowly beginning to sink in.

Even if it apparently hasn't even begun to sink in with Newland Developers and Altitude Lifestyle, given plans for Lot 1747, DP 1215252 Seabreeze Boulevard Pottsville anticipated 6.3 ha of landfill to a height of 3.1m AHD. 

A large-scale landfill height within a range Yamba residents living approx. 155km to the south of Pottsville can attest is very likely to cause flood and storm waters to find new destructive paths though long established residential streets.

Vacant land bounded on all four sides by Seabreeze Boulevard, Tom Merchant Drive, Cudgera Creek and Sawtell Circuit, Pottsville NSW.

Echo, 13 April 2023:

The 6.3ha of vacant land at 1 Seabreeze Boulevard, Pottsville which is earmarked in the Tweed Development Control Plan 2008 (DCP 2008) as a potential school site has once again been saved from being developed as housing.

The developers Newland Developers Pty Ltd have had two previous development applications refused for DAs for residential developments at the site in 2017 and 2020. The Land and Environments Court (L&EC) once again dismissed the deemed refusal on 31 March, this time for a seniors housing development.

The developers had taken the Tweed Shire Council (TSC) to the L&EC on appeal for their proposed 93 lots for seniors housing as part of a community title subdivision making this the third time TSC had to defend the site for a future school.

Flooding a key issue

A second matter heard by the LEC, to carry out water and sewer supply works on the property, was approved by the Court, subject to certain conditions.

In its ruling on the current Concept DA, the primary finding of the L&EC was that the Concept DA failed to adequately address provisions for emergency response in situations such as flooding.

Mayor of Tweed Shire Chris Cherry said this was a good outcome for the Pottsville community who have long lobbied for a high school in the coastal village.

‘We welcome the judgement in the LEC on this issue,’ Cr Cherry said…..

‘Ensuring flood safety for our Seniors living communities is paramount and the decision found that this Concept DA did not provide the certainty needed for safe occupation of the site by our most vulnerable of residents.

‘This is the third time Council has had to go to the LEC to defend this piece of land, promised for education purposes when the Seabreeze Estate was formed in 2000. Each time Council has won these cases.

‘Council appealed to the NSW Government to rezone the land to infrastructure zoning so these repeated attempts could be avoided and the promise to the community could be honoured but the State Government did not support it.

‘With the recent change in State Government, and the promised support of a Pottsville High School by the new government, it is fantastic that this determination has come in now and kept this land available.’

Who is going to tell Clarence Valley Council that they are being a tad overly optimistic about the long-term outcomes from this roadwork?

 

Clarence Valley Council Noticeboard, 10 March 2023:

Low-lying section of Yamba Road to be raised

Yamba Road will have increased flood immunity under the Regional Roads and Transport Recovery Package co-funded by the NSW and Federal governments.

A grant of almost $10 million announced 02 March will go towards raising Yamba Road between Harwood Bridge and Palmers Channel by approximately one metre. This low spot is typically the first section of Yamba Road to close during riverine flooding.

Once complete, Yamba and surrounding communities will experience significantly less days of isolation during floods. The betterment will eliminate road closures for flood events of 10 per cent annual exceedance probability or less, compared to up to 72 hours under current conditions.

IMAGE: The intersection of Yamba Road and South Bank Road was inundated for several days during the February/March 2022 floods.