Could better planning have helped in Toowoomba?

Noah says:

04:16pm | 12/01/11

Perhaps when the Reconstruction begins Australia’s most powerful Green Mr Bob Brown should attend to air his environmental concerns,as we know the Greens dictate policy and Labor deliver
Its common knowledge the greens care more for the local flora and fauna than human life,Mr Brown might be able to explain his policies in person to regional and country communities,possibly at a forum,local Town Hall perhaps
It is extremely disappointing Mr Brown has no opinion on the floods and is seemingly detached from the Australian Public

PD says:

09:12am | 12/01/11

I agree - I couldn’t see how these comments and criticisms relate to Toowoomba. I know the city well. It’s situated on a plateau on the range and has no major watercourse flowing through it.

The area hit hard was the old CBD area, which has never been hit like this in its history. So far, I’ve heard no assessment of what planning could have mitigated the Toowoomba flash-flood and there was none in this poor excuse for an article about it.

Gregg says:

09:28am | 12/01/11

The heading could be construed as somewhat misleading Matt but ironically, no better an example could be used in some ways than Toowoomba, fo sure it is perched up on the dividing range, all be it about something of what can be called a saddle, the drop down from Crows Nest, quite a drop and I’ve not been out the south side.

Sure you would not expect coastal weather there and the weather that has come in from the sea and the north to be dropping massive ammounts of rain over the north coast before hitting Toowoomba and continuing on south is considered something of a freak of nature but it is not so isolated to have turbulent weather following significant dry spells.

But all that said, whereas Coffs Harbour is a known wet spot of Australia and not properly planning for it could be considered criminal, Toowoomba does indicate to us the dangers of never allowing plenty of room for nature anywhere and that is what we are guilty of in Australia in many locations, Coffs perhaps an extreme for the coastal ranges come right down to the coast or within a kilometre of it there.

Toowoomba aside, be it because of pioneers building on river banks for obvious reasons or just greedy developers and some of local government in cahoots for the loots, towns and cities have just expanded on alluvial flood plains, land that should be reserved for agriculture as it is usually some of our richest and it would seem that is set to continue on infinitum and be it another half century or whenever we could even witness again in Brisbane what we are seeing now and no doubt there will be many other town/city floods because they have been allowed to develop where commonsense should tell us it should not be so.

Paulie says:

09:28am | 12/01/11

Well said Matt Horan.

David Wise says:

09:55am | 12/01/11

Yep. What Matt said.

TheRealDave says:

11:52am | 12/01/11

Well said Matt. I’m already totally over some of these self absorbed twits using this NATURAL DISASTER to grind their own axes/agendas in the press….and we still have about 3-4 days to go before it abates here in Brisbane.

Gear up people, expect ill informed ‘articles’ like this for the next few months.

MudCrab says:

12:24pm | 12/01/11

Poorly said Matt Horan and ill informed. I think it is safe to assume you have never worked on storm water planning for a living.

Proper planning DOES foresee this sort of event and calculates the required amount of storm drains to remove water as required.

The technology is pretty straight forward. In simple terms it involves putting in a larger pipe. The downside to a larger pipe is of course an increased cost to install.

The question that now needs to be raised is did the councils and planners in the areas effected choose to cut costs by deliberately rejecting or ignoring storm water systems capable of managing larger flow rates.

Rod McKelvey says:

12:54pm | 12/01/11

Matt and all those who scrambled to support him should take the time to read http://tinyurl.com/5r5r4j9 in the Australian. The writer paints a rather different picture than the rose coloured one Matt and his supporters promote.

RT says:

09:43am | 12/01/11

Anywhere on a flood plain is a disaster waiting to happen. But away from the Tweed floodplain, most of the Gold Coast is not a particularly high risk area as far as I know.

Gregg says:

10:10am | 12/01/11

@ RT,
It would seem that you have a limited knowledge of the Gold Coast in respect to the Nerang River and associated Merrimac flood plains, Tallebudgebra and Currunbin Creeks and area to the north as far as Hope Island.
And hope is what is needed in huge quantities for you’ve got several hundred thousand people living in a flood plain, much of it water canal estates, reclaimed from swamp land and very limited re main access roads.

The Hinze Dam does provide some mitigation from hinterland rainfall flow when it has capacity left to contain but it is what has happened downstream that is as much of concern and sure along with all the Merrimac Floodplain developments being allowed there has been a flood way built from the Nerang river out west a bit from the most dense developments to enter further downstream and closer to the Broadwater which of course has a big sea way constructed.

The potential problem awaiting though is that the current flowing into the Broadwater has sufficient current to carry sands and on the current dissipating, you can guess what happens and yep the sands fall out of suspension, not to be picked up again by the water when reversed but travelling at a slower speed where depositing occurred.
Added to that,  you have the river silt always being washed down and the result is that a few new mud banks are always appearing at low tide.
It can only be hoped that the Broadwater Shipping Channel dredging will always allow sufficient flow for water to escape.

When the Hinze is full, you’ll still have all the hinterland rain plus development with all the associated hard pavement causes more run-off on the plain and that is what will cause a massive flood worse than ever on an incoming tide or when mudbanks restrict outflow.

The Tweed flood plain on the other hand, other than limited developments about Tweed Heads itself, is largely agricultural land.

RT says:

11:38am | 12/01/11

You’re right, Gregg, I’m not very familiar with the geography of the Gold Coast. The Toowoomba disaster showed that even the humblest watercourse can become lethal in a flash flood caused by freakishly intense rain. By and large, though, the rivers you mentioned do not have either catchments or floodplains of a size comparable with the Tweed, Brisbane, Clarence or Fitzroy Rivers (to name a few) and therefore, (quay developments aside) the prospects for flooding of the type seen in those catchments is lower. Right?

Gregg says:

04:17pm | 12/01/11

@RT,
Certaily the larger rivers you mention fo have far greater catchment areas than the nerang and the reason why the Winehoe dam is where it is but even with a lesser length, the reason in part why the Hinze was built though both have been constructed also with water supply in mind.

But that is not to say the Gold Coast does not flood and at times relatively easy, there having been a number of what you could call medium inundations in the past decade or so, the Hinze having often been more empty than full, so that has helped.
Much of the more heavily populated canals residential areas are barely a metre above a normal king tide level and some areas often have canal water backing up through drainage systems and yet still development is allowed to occur, the Merrimac plains having been the latest.

So with the Hinze full and a good drenching and higher tides and you’ll have a scenario much like what is occurring with lower parts of Brisbane right now.

Where? says:

04:53pm | 12/01/11

God has no idea where Rural SA is,alot of serial killers do