Stop The Fill banner in front of retaining wall holding back landfill on a subdivision site in Carrs Drive, Yamba....
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| IMAGE: NBN News, 18 September 2022 Examples of STOP THE FILL: Don't Down Our Town corflutes out the front of homes on Yamba Rd, The Halyard & Golding Street.... |
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| Photographs supplied. |
Clarence Environment Centre, Winter newsletter – 2022, excerpt:
Who could have predicted that?
They have to be kidding!
The overworked phrase, “who could have seen this coming”, has been used by all levels of government to excuse the debacle which was the response to the recent flooding event across the Northern Rivers, and has been rightly ridiculed.
For 40 years, the world’s scientific community, through the UN, has been warning us that the changing climate will generate more frequent and more extreme weather events, and have begged the world’s governments to take appropriate action, with little success.
The failure of those governments to make meaningful attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is inexcusable. However, to fail to plan for those forecast catastrophic weather events, verges on criminal neglect. The recent flooding saw lives and property lost, businesses forced to close, and rendered thousands homeless.
In the Clarence Valley, the response to 4 decades of warnings about the inevitability of increased flooding. has been zero, something that even this latest disaster seems unlikely to change.
In fact, Council’s first act when reviewing the cause of ponding in some areas in Iluka, was to examine past rainfall data, leading to the hardly surprising conclusion that: “The significant rainfall has led to a saturated catchment and high-water table, exacerbating the time taken for water to disperse”.
Council’s statement continues with: “There has been no event or combination of events since records began that comes close to the rainfall totals recorded at Yamba”, going on to say: “We need to be aware that the most efficiently designed drainage systems are not built to cope with rainfall totals equal to that recently experienced”.
Having had over 40 years to plan for just such an event, we have to ask, why haven’t adequate drainage systems been designed, and required to be installed in all new developments?
Alongside one of Iluka’s ponding problem areas, a 140-lot subdivision is currently converting 14ha of bushland into roofs, concrete and bitumen, all combining to channel rainfall, at speed, through an inadequate stormwater system, directly into those ponding hotspots.
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The above image was of the condition of that housing development after the water had subsided. Laughingly advertised as “Birrigan Iluka Beach”, despite being nowhere near the waterfront, it has already changed water flows beginning with the removal of the forest which has led to the unprecedented ponding, prompting this Facebook comment (see right).
Council should be taking its “Climate Emergency” declaration seriously, and plan accordingly, but they aren’t, with multiple floodplain developments underway or in the planning stages in Iluka and Yamba.
Interesting time ahead!
Clarence Valley Independent, 17 September 2022:
Communities across the Northern NSW region are being urged to be aware of the risk of lead poisoning as they repair and rebuild structures and landholdings after this year’s floods.
North Coast Public Health Unit is encouraging communities to use appropriate protection when fixing their homes, particularly older structures which may contain lead-based primers, paints or dust in roofs and wall cavities that can become a significant health risk.
Dr Paul Douglas, Director North Coast Public Health Unit said elevated blood lead levels can cause anaemia, kidney problems and neurological or developmental effects.
“As repairs continue across the region, people should remain vigilant in dealing correctly with old lead-based products,” Dr Douglas said.
“If you suspect historical lead exists, take precautions to reduce exposure whilst work occurs such as using disposable coveralls and face masks with a P1 or P2 filter when handling or disposing, and do not dry sand or scrape old lead paints. If in doubt, seek advice from a professional lead consultant.”
Lead can harm people of all ages, but the risks are greater for pregnant women, infants and children. For information on lead exposure in children, visit the NSW Health website: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/environment/factsheets/Pages/lead-exposure-children.aspx
“Pregnant women and young children should also not be present while lead-based paint or other lead-containing products are being removed due to the toxic health risk it presents,” Dr Douglas said.
The NSW Environment Protection Agency website provides useful information on dealing with lead in your home and workplace, including information on renovations. Visit https://www.epa.nsw.gov.au/your-environment/household-building-and-renovation/lead-safety to find out more.
If you are concerned you or your child has been exposed to lead, contact your general practitioner or the Public Health Unit on 1300 066 055.
Independent information and advice on lead contamination and assessments is available from The LEAD Group on 1800 626 086 or visit www.lead.org.au.
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| Image: Google Earth |
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING CANCELLATION –NORTHERN REGIONAL PLANNING PANEL
The following meeting has been cancelled:
· Panel reference number PPSNTH‐31 – Clarence Valley – SUB2019/0030 ‐ 52‐54 Miles St, Yamba ‐310 Lot Staged Residential Subdivision and ancillary infrastructure works including drainage reserves and the creation of a residue lot
The meeting was to be held on:
Wednesday, 21 September 2022 at 4pm
By teleconference
The meeting has been cancelled because the applicant has withdrawn the development application….
BACKGROUND
Clarence Valley Independent, 14 September 2022:
The Development Application DA for the $32 million staged residential subdivision located at the yet to be formed Miles Street, which runs east off Carrs Drive, was lodged with Clarence Valley Council CVC on behalf of Kahuna No 1 Pty Ltd, owners of the 42.5-hectare site.
The 850 metres by 500 metre site fronts Carrs Drive, with the to be constructed Miles Street and St James Primary School to the north, and Golding Street to the east.
CVC’s assessment report prepared by town planner James Hamilton notes the Kahuna Yamba Gardens DA was on public exhibition twice, with eight submissions received in the first exhibition period and 79 submissions from the most recent period.
“The Council received a total of 87 individual submissions, comprising 87 objections and no submissions in support of the proposed development,” Mr Hamilton’s report stated.
“The submissions raised issues relating to urban design, flooding, stormwater, traffic, filling, environment, services, climate change and sea level rise, heritage and impacts on the town.”
The assessment on the DA by Mr Hamilton listed six factors, including two endangered species, for refusal.
These factors for refusal included that The Rural Fire Service could not support the development under Section 100B of the Rural Fires Act 1997, and the fact the site contains two listed endangered flora species being Rotala tripartita and Spider orchid.
“Sufficient information has not been provided to enable a determination on how the proposed development will not likely have a serious and irreversible impact on these two species,” the assessment stated.
The DA was also found by council to be inconsistent with the General Residential, Flood Planning and Earthworks clauses of the Clarence Valley Local Environment Plan 2011.
“The proposal is inconsistent with the aims of Clarence Valley Local Environmental Plan 2011 as it has not been satisfactorily demonstrated that the proposed development will enable the sustainable development of the site, adequately protect areas of high ecological value and maintain the character of Yamba township,” the assessment stated.
CVC’s assessment also found the DA was inconsistent with numerous parts of the Clarence Valley Residential Zones Development Control Plan 2011, including Floodplain Management Controls, Sustainable Water Controls and Urban Release Area Controls…..
Watch this space for the next development application Mr. Merchant lodges on this land.
Meanwhile over in the Parkes Menai- Hometown Australia camp.....
It appears that Hometown Australia Management Pty Ltd's est. $33.9 million development application DA2021/0558 for 138 dwellings, an exhibition home and community facilities at 8 Park Ave, Yamba, may be deferred yet again by the Northern Regional Planning Panel (NRPP) as the NSW Dept. of Planning and Environment has not yet submitted its review of the flooding and risk evacuation procedures supplied by Hometown at the request of NRPP.
This is a proposed development with an unhappy history. The original land clearing and landfill under a Parkes Developments DA resulted in the unapproved felling of a significant number of native trees in the adjoining dedicated Wattle Park.
Further, although the original land fill on 8 Park Ave is estimated to have reached RL2.8AHD so that the site only has a 1% (1 in 100) chance in any given year of being surrounded by 2.08 to 2.51 metres of flood water, the stormwater flows from this approx. 6.65ha lot enter an inadequate on-site and extended drainage network.
Resulting in situations like this for established homes now at a comparatively altered ground level approx. 2.8m lower than the very large Park Ave lot.
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| Extract from a submission to Clarence Valley Council, 28 October 2021 |
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| Extract from a submission to Clarence Valley Council, 29 October 2021 - open ditch drain |
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| Extract from "West Yamba Update", West Yamba Information, 21 June 2022 - before and after height of common boundary with 8 Park Ave, Yamba |
This is a situation which during prolonged/high rainfall events is likely to exacerbate the 2-5% chance of mixed stormwater-riverine water inundation in adjacent streets and across a number of residential properties. As occurred in the March 2022.
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT that a big part of the reason why prices have gone up so much & wages are kept down is because big business has so much power in our country they can get away with both!!! It seems the RBA is finally saying it out aloud. Price gouging & wage suppression.
— Sally McManus (@sallymcmanus) September 16, 2022
Below is a fairly typical description of Yamba and environs during high rainfall and flooding events.
Even though it appears text and images have been produced between 2015-2021 it seems to be considered by the NSW Government as a contemporary description rather than an historical one.
Read it carefully if you live in Yamba or have been a holidaymaker in the town when the Lower Clarence River has been in flood in recent years.
NSW State Emergency Services (SES), Flood Awareness NSW, retrieved 13 September 2022:
Clarence Valley LGA
Yamba and Palmers Island – Are you at risk?
Yes you are!
Yamba is located on the southern bank of the mouth of the Clarence River. The main impact of floods in the area is isolation, however several residents and commercial properties can be inundated in severe floods. Even in minor floods, Yamba may become isolated when Yamba Road closes. Another consideration during local floods is the influx of tourists during holidays and summer season, who may be unaware of the local effects of flooding.
Palmers Islands is located directly west of Yamba on the southern bank of the Clarence River. Most of the land on the island is prone to flooding. In a minor flood, Palmers Island becomes isolated and surrounded by flood water. In a major flood some properties may experience over-floor flooding and some residents may need to evacuate.
Rural land along the Clarence River around Wooloweyah Lagoon can also be inundated and substantial numbers of rural properties can become isolated.
The period of isolation for these areas can vary depending on the size and duration of the flood, as well as high tides preventing drainage to the sea. Any residents wanting to leave the area would need to do so before flooding causes Yamba Road to close.
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| Palmers Island Yamba Road Store and School Flooding |
Do those five short paragraphs and that one image match your experience of floodwater and stormwater inundation in Yamba over the last 30 years?
Is it still mostly the inconvenience of isolation that the Yamba community suffers? Is it an accurate description to say that only “several residents and commercial properties can be inundated in severe floods”?
Is anyone else in Yamba asking themselves why that first paragraph quoted here is still accepted uncritically by state authorities, when the lived experience is that the inundation situation has been gradually becoming more pronounced over decades. That the amount of water entering town commercial and residential precincts is long past just nuisance value.
The natural flood storage areas and flood ways within the town, which carry water overland to the river estuary and out to sea, no longer function. In large measure due to the degree of draining, infilling and building over of these these features which has occurred over time and the fact that: (i) the town’s stormwater system can no longer adequately cope with the amount of rain falling from the sky and subsequent rainwater runoff from sloping ground/hard surfaces; and (ii) the river water arriving as flood carried down from higher up the river system whose swirl through town streets is often exacerbated by a tidal pull.
There are residents whose homes have been inundated at floor level in both 2021 and 2022 and residential lots which experienced stormwater/floodwater intrusion onto the property for the first time or at a deeper level that previous flood periods according to homeowners.
A better description of the changing Yamba experience of flooding can be found in an Inside Local Government article of 26 May 2022:
Clarence Valley Mayor, Ian Tiley, has demanded the Clarence be included in any 2022 flood studies and assessments, saying the region had been ignored in initial assessments by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
Mayor Tiley put forward a Minute at the June Council meeting following advice from the Department of Planning and Environment that post flood data behaviour assessments already undertaken had focused on the Richmond, Wilson, Brunswick and Tweed rivers – local government areas to the north of the Clarence Valley.
“The flood level at Grafton was not a predictor for the flood behaviour downstream,” the Mayor said.
“It is clear the Clarence flood increased in volume as it moved downstream and staff consider it likely the extreme localised rainfall events in the tributaries of the lower catchment impacted Clarence River levels downstream of Grafton, and that post flood data behaviour assessments may inform these assumptions.”
CVC previously reported in April that Yamba experienced its biggest rainfall event on record, with 1267mm in February and March. This included 274.4mm on 28 February – the highest 24-hour February total on record – and 258.2mm on 1 March for a total of 532mm.
“There has been no event or combination of events since records began that comes close to the rainfall totals recorded at Yamba in February and March,” Clarence Valley Council Director Works and Civil, Jamie Fleeting said at the time.
Getty Images has a collection of photographs which clearly demonstrate the growing dissonance between what is written by government agencies about flood behaviour and the lived experience of the Yamba community in March 2022.
YAMBA, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 02: An aerial view of a flooded street and properties in the town of Yamba, in northern New South Wales, on March 1-2, 2022 in Yamba, Australia.
(Photo by Elise Hassey/Getty Images)
Note: Hover mouse over upper righthand corner of images to reveal "Share" and "Full Screen" buttons.
Yamba's only flood evacuation route in early March 2022.... pic.twitter.com/9FLn2VY1A7
— no_filter_Yamba (@no_filter_Yamba) September 13, 2022
BACKGROUND
Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Special Climate Statement 76 – Extreme rainfall and flooding in south-eastern Queensland and eastern New South Wales, 25 May 2022, excerpt:
Summary
Extreme multi-day rainfall and significant flooding affected south-eastern Queensland and eastern New South Wales from 22 February to 9 March 2022. The heavy rainfall began in south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales during the last week of February, and continued further south into eastern New South Wales in March (Figure 1).
Multi-day rainfall records were broken across south-eastern Queensland and north-east New South Wales, with multiple sites recording over 1 metre of rainfall (Figure 2). For the last week of February, rainfalls across parts of the region were at least 2.5 times the February average (based on the 1961–1990 period), with some parts more than 5 times the average. For north-east New South Wales and large areas of south-eastern Queensland, this was the wettest week since at least 1900. The intense and sustained rainfall across the region led to flash flooding and riverine flooding extending from Maryborough in Queensland to Grafton in New South Wales. Some areas of south-eastern Queensland, such as the Mary River at Gympie, recorded their highest flood peaks since 1893.
Widespread major riverine flooding also occurred in the Sunshine Coast region, and in the Brisbane, Logan and Albert River catchments. In parts of north-east New South Wales, peak flood levels broke previous observed records (reliable since at least 1974 and for some locations dating back more than 100 years) by considerable margins. Devastating flooding occurred through Lismore (Wilsons River) and other nearby towns, including Coraki and Woodburn (Richmond River) and Murwillumbah and Tumbulgum (Tweed River).
In the first week of March, the rainfall system shifted south along the New South Wales coast, bringing further heavy rainfall to eastern parts of the state (Figure 3). As a result, the Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment recorded its wettest 9-day period on record (since 1900) to 9 March (Table 11). With rain falling on already saturated soils and swollen rivers, flood levels in the Hawkesbury-Nepean river system exceeded those reached in March 2021 and were comparable to those of 1978 (Table 12).
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