The flash flooding on 6 April this year impacting dozens of Wollongong suburbs has prompted Council to seek greater state and federal support to help manage and repair the devastation ahead of future events.
It comes at a time Council has announced the purchase of two flood-prone homes in Lake Heights.
The destruction resulting from the April flood has prompted calls for Council to do more to prevent future flooding by upgrading stormwater infrastructure and clearing creeks that turn floodways into rivers and lakes when the big storms hit. Purchasing properties which regularly flood is another option for Council but because of the cost it's often seen as a last resort.
At the height of the April crisis, floodwaters ran down an embankment and pushed over fencing at 42 Mirrabooka Road, Lake Heights before washing through the house and garden.
This week Wollongong City Council (WCC) announced it will purchase 42 and 63 Mirrabooka Road to reduce the threat to personal safety and flood damage. This brings to four the number of properties purchased in the same flood zone.
Under the purchase program the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water pays two-thirds of the purchase price, the demolition costs and reasonable legal and valuation fees. Council covers the remaining one-third of the costs.
Lord Mayor Cr Tania Brown said decisions to purchase flood-prone properties were not taken lightly, especially given the cost involved. She said the land in Lake Heights will allow for the construction of a detention basin "to help reduce the flood risk on neighbouring properties".
Council currently has 50 homes listed on the eligibility list in Thirroul, Figtree and Balgownie. Since 1990, Council has purchased 86 flood-prone properties.
While WCC is doing what it can, it's made no secret that it badly needs more resources to prevent and recover from the city's growing flood menace.
Council calls for more disaster funding
At the recent Local Government NSW Conference at Tamworth, involving all councils across the state, Wollongong City Council moved a motion to seek a significant boost to natural disaster funding to allow councils to do more to protect their vulnerable flood victims.
The WCC motion supported by delegates was "that Local Government NSW requests the Australian and NSW Governments to establish more efficient policy, procedures and funding to improve local government response and preparation for natural disaster."
Wollongong isn't the only LGA struggling to cope with protecting and then repairing the growing number of devastating flood events that are now almost an annual event.
Welcoming the support of other councils, Lord Mayor Brown said: "Wollongong has a unique vulnerability to natural disaster. The combination of the steep escarpment and flood coastal plains means Wollongong experiences significant impacts from high rainfall events which can pose a risk to life and property."
The early morning deluge on 6 April this year resulted in some of the worst floods in Wollongong in decades with homes and businesses inundated and when the final damage bill is assessed it's expected to rise to the millions across public and private properties. It is just the latest in a rising number of natural disasters impacting the city in the past five years.
"Following the 6 April natural disaster Council received over 6500 calls and over 1000 online requests for assistance and over 3400 tonnes of waste was collected," Cr Brown said. "The disaster had a material impact on our budget, along with the cumulative financial impacts of previous natural disasters."
The Lord Mayor expressed her frustration that councils like Wollongong weren't able to manage flood events and the expensive aftermath because of a number of issues under the Australian Government State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
"These impede local governments' ability to respond, and build resilience, to natural disasters," Cr Brown said.
"We believe there's a valuable opportunity to use our experience in Wollongong to develop a comprehensive framework for disaster management which could be applied across other LGAs.
"A key focus would be to improve coordination between local, state and federal agencies. Council is speaking with the NSW Government to progress this," Cr Brown added.
Key role for flood committees
Meanwhile, retired engineer Ian Young, who has been studying local flood causes for more than a decade, believes WCC needs to consolidate their feedback on flooding and flood management.
Council currently has three flood committees that cover the city's north, centre and south. New flood committees will be established soon to support the new Council (the committees haven't met since the April 6 flood).
"I recommend these committees are brought together periodically to look at the commonality between the flooded areas," Ian Young said.
He believes it is important that the broader Wollongong LGA community should be able to share their experience of flooding and so identify common issues that contribute to flooding and flood relief to assist in developing a comprehensive city-wide flood mitigation action plan.
