Gumbaynggirr custodians are calling for our help to protect forests of the proposed Great Koala National Park

 

Approved plans for forestry operations at Newry State Forest were made active last week.(Supplied: Bellingen Activist Network) IMAGE: ABC News, 3 August 2023.

Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales, email, 5 August 2023:

The battle to protect the Great Koala National Park is ramping up. Will you support the Newry Forest protest camp and Gumbaynggirr traditional owners to protect this culturally and ecologically significant site?

…., for the past few days Gumbaynggirr custodians, environment groups and the wider community have peacefully protested to save the forest from logging destruction.

The forest has recently won a few moments of temporary reprieve from the bulldozers in the past few days. The campaign has had a series of powerful protests and received coverage in the Coffs Coast Advocate, NBN, NITV, and The Echo.

Gumbayngirr traditional owners Sandy Greenwood, Uncle Micklo Jarrett and Uncle Bud Marshall.

But the fight is not over and those at the camp are calling out for your support.

“If we don't act now our deeply significant cultural heritage will be desecrated, our beautiful old-growth trees will be logged, rare flora will become extinct and our koalas and endangered species will literally have nowhere else to go.” Sandy Greenwood, Gumbaynggirr Custodian.

This alliance has catalysed around a peaceful protest camp at the entry of the forest. This camp has served as an important place for meetings, events and interviews with journalists.

Are you able to put your name down to help out at camp?

Sign up here to get involved

Whether you’re able to visit once or take on a weekly task—there is something for everyone to do.

“It would be a disaster and a disgrace to see some of our totemic animals like the Koala disappear for motives of greed.

“The ancestral beings gave us our lore, our culture, and taught us how to live in harmony with the land. Everything was precious – we needed these places to survive. If they keep going like this we won’t have forest left. This forest needs to be a sanctuary for our people and other animals.”

Gumbaynggirr spokesperson, Micklo Jarrett.

This campaign to protect Newry State Forest relies on people like you stepping up and working together.

Please sign up here and a camp organiser will get in touch with you about next steps.

In the inspiring words of Sandy Greenwood: “The time to act is now—we will save our forests.”......

Ed Mortimer

Organising Director

Nature Conservation Council of NSW

https://www.nature.org.au/

In 2023 Science has the tools to refine its climate change predictive scenarios, never-the-less the Earth's land masses & oceans continue to heat up because neither world leaders, governments nor industry will accept what is now the increasingly urgent evidence of their own eyes

 

“Warming oceans cause sea levels to rise, both directly via heat expansion, and indirectly through melting of ice shelves. Warming oceans also affect marine ecosystems, for example through coral bleaching, and play a role in weather events such as the formation of tropical cyclones” [The Conversation, 14 September 2021, reporting on research by Kewei Lyu, Xuebin Zhang & John A. Church]

This is a Australian Bureau Of Meteorology visualisation of sea surface temperatures around the Australian coastline on 4 August 2023 as El Niño conditions continue to be expected to arrive within weeks.

On 1 August BOM stated:

The Bureau's El Niño Alert continues, with El Niño development considered likely in the coming weeks, despite the current lack of atmospheric response. When El Niño Alert criteria have been met in the past, an El Niño event has developed around 70% of the time.

Sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the tropical Pacific are exceeding El Niño thresholds, with climate models indicating this is likely to continue at least through to the end of the year. In the atmosphere, however, wind, cloud and broad-scale pressure patterns mostly continue to reflect neutral ENSO conditions. This means the Pacific Ocean and atmosphere have yet to become fully coupled, as occurs during El Niño events. El Niño typically suppresses winter–spring rainfall in eastern Australia.

And this is what is being discussed by climate scientists in our region.

Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, 20^th Annual Conference, Axford Medal Lecture given by UNSW Emeritus Professor John Church, 2 August 2023:

What do we really know about 20th and 21st Century Sea-Level Change?

Abstract: Accelerating sea-level rise in much of the world will result in growing impacts through the 21st century and beyond. Despite the clear identification of an accelerating rise, many uncertainties remain. Understanding historical sea-level change is a prerequisite for building confidence in useful and accurate predictions of future changes.

For many decades, our limited knowledge of the contributions to sea-level change could not explain the rise measured by coastal tide gauges – the sea level enigma. New and improved in situ and satellite observations of the ocean, improved understanding of the “solid Earth”, and better understanding and improved modelling of the climate system have helped resolve this enigma. A number of recent studies have argued that the sum of contributions from both observations and model estimates to sea-level change over the satellite era, the last half century and since 1900 adequately explains the observed sea-level rise, which means the sea-level budget is closed. The major contributions are from ocean thermal expansion and contributions from glaciers, with an accelerating ice sheet contributions over the recent decades.

Our recent work has explored the sensitivity of global and regional sea-level reconstructions to poorly known land motions and the factors causing temporal and regional variations in the rate of rise. With this knowledge, existing reconstructions of global mean sea level are mostly not significantly different to each other from 1900 to the present, both in the time-averaged rate and the temporal variability. However, while the average rate over 1900 to present is similar to that from the sum of contributions, the rate of reconstructed GMSL rise is significantly smaller/larger than the sum of contributions prior to 1940/after 1970. Why is this? What do we really know? What are potential explanations for this continuing enigma?

And what can we project about future sea level, both for the 21st century and beyond. And can we constrain projections for the 21st century and beyond?

One of the notable take-aways from this lecture appears to be:

..that one of the main impacts of sea level on society will be how we adapt.

“We will have to adapt to that sea level rise we can no longer prevent. Of particular concern is very significantly increased rates of coastal flooding events and eventually inundation of some coastal areas,” Prof. Church said.

“We are already experiencing more severe and more frequent coastal flooding events impacting an increasing number of people.

“This century, we could expect up to about a metre of sea level rise with unmitigated emissions. This could rise to several metres over coming centuries. Today, an estimated 200 million people live within one metre of current high tide level, and by mid-century over a billion people are likely to live in the low elevation coastal zone, which is within 10 metres of current sea level.” [UNSW Newsroom, “'Urgent action is required’: UNSW climate expert on what’s to come as sea levels rise”, 2 August 2023]

A reminder that much of the NSW Northern Rivers coastal region is predicted to experience significant levels of inundation at an average global surface temperature rise of 1.5°C.

Climate Central, north-east NSW (Northern Rivers) mapping, 2021. Click on image to enlarge

BACKGROUND

John Church is an Emeritus Professor in the Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales. He has published across a broad range of topics in oceanography.

His area of expertise is the role of the ocean in climate, particularly anthropogenic climate change, and in understanding global and regional sea-level rise. He is the author of over 180 refereed publications, over 110 other reports and co-edited three books. He was co-convening lead author for the Chapter on Sea Level in the IPCC Third and Fifth Assessment Reports. He was awarded the 2006 Roger Revelle Medal by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, a CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement in 2006, the 2007 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, the 2008 AMOS

R.H. Clarke Lecture, the AMOS Morton Medal in 2017, a joint winner of the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Climate Change Category Prize in 2019, the AAS Jaeger Medal in 2021 and the Royal Society of NSW James Cook Medal in 2022. He is an Officer of the Order of Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society and the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society.

Cartoons of the Week

 

A tale of two former leaders

Scott John Morrison & Donald John Trump at the height of their  political careers before the fall into public disgrace and infamy

Getty Image circa Sept. 2019

As both men are seen in Australia in July 2023

Blameless
Cathy Wilcox

In a pickle
Jon Shakespeare

A classic doorstep interview with the mother-in-law of a NSW politician

Excerpt from an article in The Sydney Morning Herald on 3 August 2023:

Outside her large home in the seaside suburb of Merewether, Santina Manitta berated reporters and warned they would be shot for asking questions about the family’s property holdings at the heart of this saga.

As for her besieged son-in-law, she had this to say: “My son is a f---ing politician. F--- you and f--- them.”

Pressed over why her son-in-law had been sacked, Manitta could not offer any explanation.

“Truly, sincerely, I don’t give a s---,” she said. “Look, you’ve got to understand politicians are there because they’re f --- ing dumb.

“I told you if my son get arrested, good, I’m happy for him ... because he should never have been a politician. It is wasting his time.”

It was only hours after Crakanthorp was sacked as a minister and referred to the corruption watchdog for failing to disclose “substantial” private family holdings and breaching the ministerial code of conduct.

tenor.com

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.

In which Liberal backbencher & MP for Cook Scott Morrison once again seeks to rewrite his history over that period in which he was first Minister for Social Services, then Treasurer and finally Prime Minister of Australia

 

The following is a video of Scott John Morrison's Members Statement of 31 July 2023 on the floor of the Australian House of Representatives......

https://youtu.be/U4IPnkt75Xc

Video supplied

During his Member's Statement (Hansard 31.07.23 at 16:10, p.83) Morrison asserted in part:

•  “I do, however, completely reject the commission's adverse findings in the published report regarding my own role as Minister for Social Services between December 2014 and September 2015 as disproportionate, wrong, unsubstantiated and contradicted by clear evidence presented to the commission. As Minister for Social Services I played no role and had no responsibility in the operation or administration of the robodebt scheme.”

• “In relation to the commission's finding regarding untrue evidence, I also reject this as unsubstantiated, speculative, and wrong.”

• “Finally, the commission's allegation that pressure was applied to department officials that prevented their giving frank advice is wrong, unsubstantiated and absurd….How could I have pressured officials into developing such proposals while serving in another portfolio?”

• “Throughout my service in numerous portfolios over almost nine years I enjoyed positive, respectful and professional relationships with Public Service officials at all times, and there is no evidence before the commission to the contrary. While acknowledging the regrettable—again, the regrettable—unintended consequences and impacts of the scheme on individuals and families, I do however completely reject each of the adverse findings against me in the commission's report as unfounded and wrong.”

• “The latest attacks on my character by the government in relation to this report is just a further attempt by the government following my departure from office to discredit me and my service to our country during one of the most difficult periods our country has faced since the Second World War. This campaign of political lynching has once again included the weaponisation of a quasi-legal process to launder the government's political vindictiveness. They need to move on.”

This is the second time Scott Morrison has risen to his feet in 

the House of Representatives to self-servingly defend his 

personal politically indefensible actions.

That first time he was defending the fact that as then Prime Minister of Australia (24.8.2018 to 23.5.2022) and Minister for the Public Service (29.5.2019 to 8.10.2021) he secretly appointed himself to five additional key ministries, beginning this portfolio grab in March 2020:

 

• Minister for Health from 14.3.2020 to 23.5.2022;

• Minister for Finance from 30.3.2020 to 23.5.2022;

• Minister for Industry, Science, Energy and Resources from 15.4.2021 to 23.5.2022;

• Minister for Home Affairs from 6.5.2021 to 23.5.2022; and

• Treasurer from 6.5.2021 to 23.5.2022.

Bringing the total number of portfolios he had full governance over - if he wished to exercise this power - to seven by 7 October 2021 and six thereafter.

Covert actions which on completion of a formal independent inquiry by Honourable Virginia Bell AC which found: 

"As the Solicitor-General concluded, the principles of responsible government were “fundamentally undermined” because Mr Morrison was not “responsible” to the Parliament, and through the Parliament to the electors, for the departments he was appointed to administer.

Finally, the lack of disclosure of the appointments to the public was apt to undermine public confidence in government. Once the appointments became known, the secrecy with which they had been surrounded was corrosive of trust in government."

caused the House of Representatives on 31 November 2022 

by a vote of 80 to 56 to censure him with these words:

“Therefore [the house] censures the member for Cook for failing to disclose the appointments to the House of Representatives, the Australian people and the cabinet, which undermined responsible government and eroded public trust in Australia’s democracy.” 

At the moment he rose to his feet to make his 31 July 2023 statement to the House the Liberal MP for Cook appeared literally friendless, with very few members of parliament remaining in or returning to the Chamber to hear him speak.

IMAGE: Snapshot via @Terrytoo69, Twitter, 1 August 2023



However, lest anyone imagine Scott Morrison deserves pity,

I give the last words in this post to.....

Mr Morrison, you are a bottomless well of self-pity with not a drop of mercy for all the real victims of Robodebt pic.twitter.com/tdDiK6O6TK

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) August 1, 2023

 

Letters past and present....

 

INFORMATION EXCHANGE WITH A TWIST

From The Echo archives, May 2021:

A confusion of letters in Ocean Shores

Apparently, there is another Ocean Shores in another part of the world, and they have deer…

The Ocean Shores & District Garden Club secretary, Claire, was a little perplexed when she was replying to a lady named Marilyn who showed interest in coming to the club meeting last week.

Marilyn wrote

I moved to Ocean Shores in September and was hoping to find a garden club.

I was hoping to learn more about how people garden, especially with the deer population here.

Deer?

Claire was very curious and intrigued about the possible deer of Ocean Shores. She responded to Marylin with all the club details of time and location of meetings and other events and was happy to welcome the new member to the Far North Coast club.

This came from Marilyn…

Looking forward to first meeting

Thank you, so much, for your reply. I’m looking forward to attending my first meeting Monday.

I’ve never been to a club meeting. I haven’t had time for gardening in years.

The house we moved to had no plants at all. I just started planting 80 pots of daffodils, lilacs, snowball bushes, and a few other plants.

Have to get several peonies still, too. I’m planning on building a greenhouse this year too. I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions going forward.

See you Monday!

Claire wrote

I think you have us confused with another garden club.

Ocean Shores is in the Northern Rivers 30 minutes past Byron Bay.

Deer aren’t a problem here and the flowers you mention we would love to grow but aren’t suitable for a subtropical climate.

Intrigued to know where you live.

Uho-oh!

Marilyn wrote:

Oh no! Are you in Australia?!

I’m in Ocean Shores, Washington USA! I thought I finally got the right one. I typed in my city and state and thought it sounded right. Darn!

Well, I’m sorry for taking your time, and the confusion. Thank you anyway. The search will go on, I guess.

Marilyn

Ocean Shores

Washington, USA

What Marilyn may not know is that Ocean Shores was originally a land holding owned by a company – Wendell West of Washington.

The development had the backing of American singer Pat Boone. Ocean Shores was named after Boone’s residence in Ocean Shores, Washington in the United States.

It really actually is a small world after all.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT

Clarence Valley Independent, Letters, 26 July 2023:

Can I begin by thanking Oscar Tamsen for his considered and respectful letter regarding the upcoming referendum and The Voice (CVI 12/7/23). I am certainly no one of authority but I offer the following as a means of hopefully clarifying some issues.

The referendum if passed will require the government to establish a body, The Voice, which may make representations to the parliament and executive on matters of concern to First Nations Australians. Very senior constitutional lawyers and former high court judges, in spite of being misquoted by some politicians, have made it clear that this could not be interpreted as going beyond providing advice and definitely does not imply any sort of veto. As to what “matters” The Voice might proffer advice on, trying to place definitive limits beyond “matters affecting First Nations Australians” could be problematic and really quite unnecessary. I’m confident indigenous Australians would reject Voice members who did not concentrate on critical issues like health, housing, education and justice, and of course the parliament and executive would be unlikely to give a lot of time to advice that was not pertinent to those issues. The check and balance is the ballot box.

Now to the details of the structure of The Voice. Our constitution is not a weighty tome. It was largely a power sharing agreement between the six founding colonies. What they were prepared to cede to a commonwealth parliament and just the barest details of how that parliament would be structured, again in order to protect the interests of the states. There is a lot of detail not enshrined in the constitution, quite deliberately, in order that it be flexible enough to cope with changing circumstances and needs. For instance, much of the workings of the parliament is left to convention, not constitutional prescription. Only very broad guidelines are given on the structure of the parliament or indeed the voting system. The details were left to the parliament to implement and modify over time if desired and they have been modified a number of times. It’s when you do put a lot of detail in a constitution you run the risk of unintended consequences down the track. The classic example is the provision in the American constitution of the right to bear arms. It seemed fine 250 years ago in the context of just coming out of a revolution and war of independence but is very problematic now and very problematic to remove.

So, it should come as no surprise that the referendum question itself is very light on for detail. Instead, it is designed to enshrine the principle of a Voice. So why doesn’t the government put forward the detail it intends to legislate should The Voice get up? Two points. You can imagine that if they did many people would assume that at the referendum they were voting for, or against, that detail. But this would be wrong as the legislated detail could be changed by future governments. You can also bet that certain politicians would go through that detail line by line looking for points to argue on, even though they know very well that any detail they don’t like could be altered should they find themselves in government. Legislated detail is a political issue to be debated in parliament and if necessary, resolved at elections. It is highly likely that the detail of The Voice will be modified over time to improve it or meet changing needs, but no future government will be able to simply abolish it without reference to the people by means of a democratic referendum.

The referendum has come out of a process of years of broad consultation and expert advice. We can summarise this as the Uluru process. First Nation Australians are asking for recognition as the original custodians of this land going back tens of thousands of years, but they want recognition which is meaningful and practical, not just nice words in a preamble. They are tired of advisory bodies being abolished at the whim of the government of the day. A voice to parliament is a practical way of improving policies and outcomes. We know that programs with local input work better.

What has been put forward is very modest, generous really, and it provides a pathway towards true reconciliation and an opportunity to address the disadvantage which is so apparent in the Closing The Gap annual reports.

Graeme East, Yamba

Clarence Valley Independent, Letters, 26 July 2023:

Ed,

In his lengthy dissertation (CVI 12/7/23) Oscar Tamsen answers his own question i.e., details of the voice is to be the duty of the incumbent government and rightly so!

By voting Yes, we are constitutionally recognising the 65,000 years of First Nations tenure of the continent – such advisory bodies are in operation in Canada, Finland, Sweden, Norway etc.

The naysayers’ (e.g., Dutton et al) insistence on more detail and the accompanying mis/disinformation and vitriol, collectively, is simply a political ploy to sink the referendum.

This tactic is no more than a continuation of the annoying Aussie classic to deny First Nations progress i.e. “I’m not racist, BUT ——!”

Naysayers cite Māori influence in Kiwi politics – completely irrelevant as Māori legislative rights are supported by the Waitangi Treaty.

A No vote denies progress in Recognition and Reconciliation of our First Nations people i.e., ‘if not, when?’

Advice to Oscar and others is to be sceptical of conservative hogwash, treat SkyNews with the disdain it deserves and make sure you catch up with the ABC interview of Prof Ann Twomey (16/6/23) – Twomey from Sydney Uni is one of the country’s leading constitutional lawyers.

Ted Strong, Seelands

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Byron Echo, online, Letters, 30 July 2023:

Byron Shire Council determines the policy for sewage treatment for the shire. This is not the prerogative of the Northern Rivers Reconstruction Corporation (NRRC).

Brunswick Valley Sewage Treatment Plant (BVSTP) is designed to treat 3,800kl/day of sewage, not stormwater. The current daily dry weather inflow at BVSTP varies between 1,400kl/day and 1,800kl/day. The previous elected Byron Council implemented a five-year investigation of the inflow infiltration (I/I) problem occurring in the Mullumbimby sewer gravity mains collection system and the stormwater collection system. A company that specialised in this field and also relining existing gravity mains thus solving the I/I problem.

The five-year period is up and the I/I still remains; this is very visible during rain events in Mullumbimby and the substantial increase of the daily inflow into BVSTP. Five years with no improvement to the existing problem.

Council’s water and recycling division (W&R) is persisting with their plan to close Ocean Shores Sewage Treatment Plant (OSSTP) and pipe the sewage from OSSTP across Brunswick Valley to the Mullumbimby plant. Ocean Shores STP also has infiltration problems which are obvious in the inflow increase during rain events. OSSTP’s capacity is 1,600kl/day.

The current design concept of BVSTP is a biological reduction. These plants depend on their hydraulic load remaining below their design capacity to operate effectively. The extra load that will be transferred from OSSTP during dry weather risks adversely affecting the hydraulic load at BVSTP, during rain events it will most definitely overload the BVSTP’s hydraulic design capacity.

There now is the proposed Saddle Road development. If this is approved the sewage from this development will go to BVSTP.

The Water & Sewer Advisory Committee has not discussed or been asked to discuss these issues and the effect it will have on the BVSTP. Why not?

It is time the elected council asked questions of W&R: why after five years of investigations by a company retained by W&R to fix the I/I problem in Mullumbimby has nothing changed? How does W&R intend BVSTP to cope with the increased hydraulic load and still operate satisfactorily?

Alan Dickens, Ballina

Byron Echo, online, Letters, 28 July 2023:

Hijacked: residents’ car park Mullum

I note his [the mayor’s] reference to the loss of the residents’ car park just left of the roundabout from the railway crossing. Residents are aghast at Byron Council’s secret decision to sell that car park for a really large housing development – plus Council staff are to live there!

People are not happy at all about this, shocked and very disgusted! Authority has been handed to our general manager by Byron councillors, except Duncan Dey, to ‘handle’ the tender process.

This is not a ‘done deal’ and, as residents have not been consulted on this, it needs to be challenged. It’s such a secretive decision – hence the question: why? With no one allowed (except if speaking in public access) to attend Council meetings because the Conference Room (since the 2022 flood!) is too small, residents do not know what is discussed at those meetings!

‘The 2022 flood drainage’ is the vital subject, as has been reported extensively by so many residents. However, Council continue to deny anything needs to be done about it, except for a few areas. The North Byron Flood Risk Management Study, October 2020 states: ‘Ongoing maintenance of the drainage network is important to ensure it is operating with maximum efficiency to reduce risk of blockage or failure… Modification of drainage – installation of new or larger channels or culverts can increase conveyance and help reduce upstream peak flood levels or reduce duration of inundation. ASSESSMENT – existing drainage network is believed to be well below capacity for current development.’ A drainage assessment was undertaken for New City Road in 2018 (Ref 20), and identified a number of issues at this location. The entrance to Marshalls Creek is constricted by rock walls.

This flooding ‘jigsaw’ can be solved.

Jillian Spring, Billinudgel