Harsh weather puts $140m Brown Hill Creek and Keswick Creek flood mitigation plan back in the spotlight
SOUTH Australia’s turbulent spring weather has put the Brown Hill Creek and Keswick Creek flood plan back into the spotlight. The $140 million plan has been more than 10 years in the making.
South Australia’s turbulent spring weather this week has propelled the Brown Hill Creek and Keswick Creek flood mitigation plan back into the spotlight. The $140 million plan has been more than 10 years in the making. So will it go ahead and what has been done so far?
ADELAIDE and Hills residents are recovering from the wettest September day on record in some parts, which flooded homes, destroyed roads and left behind a multi-million dollar clean-up bill.
The deluge brought a downpour of more than 100mm of rain to areas in the Mount Lofty Ranges over 24 hours, breaking the banks of local creeks, and the wild weather is not over.
The Bureau of Metrology has warned another “strong” weather system will hit the state next week and even the smallest amount of rain could cause catchments to spill over.
Brown Hill and Keswick creeks have a history of flooding, prompting five affected metropolitan councils to form the Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Project.
Since 2006, West Torrens, Unley, Burnside, Mitcham and Adelaide City councils have investigated how to floodproof 7000 homes from a one-in-100-year flood.
In October, the councils agreed Brown Hill Creek should be widened and cleared, rather than having its upper reaches dammed as previously proposed.
They say the proposal – which was part of its $140 million stormwater plan – would have helped prevent Wednesday’s floodwaters affecting hundreds of properties.
“The plan includes major works along Brown Hill Creek to greatly reduce the risk of flooding in suburbs across the region as occurred this week,” project chair Terry Buss said.
“But to fully implement the plan in a timely manner, funding support from the State Government is vital.
“The catchment councils have already agreed to a major financial contribution to implement flood mitigation works, and it’s now up to the State Government to come to the party too.”
The councils have agreed to fund $50 million of the $140 million plan and the remaining cost was expected to be shared by the Federal and State governments.
The State Government said it will contribute $4 million a year over 30 years towards the Stormwater Management Authority – not directly to the project.
The Turnbull Government stated during this year’s election campaign it would not help fund the multi-million project.
Local advocacy groups and the five councils have this week again renewed calls for government help to foot the bill and safeguard thousands of properties.
Brown Hill Creek Association chairman Wayne Meyer said Wednesday’s weather emphasised the importance of the stormwater management plan.
“It has highlighted there needs to be a flood mitigation plan, which needs to be implemented as soon as it can, but the major issue – to put it simply – is that they are blockages in the financial flow path,” Mr Meyer said.
“The councils are going ahead and doing what they can within their own resources, but it’s only part of what’s needed.”
Mitcham Council has commenced clearing out the creek bed to help improve the flows and Mayor Glenn Spear acknowledged some homes in Hawthorn had been evacuated this week because of flooding.
“We have it in our plan to spend money on flood mitigation works and we need the Government to commit to a solid basis for this work to continue,” Mr Spear said.
“Our agenda is to spend the money, get the creek remediated and get the flood waters moving better than they are now.”
Premier Jay Weatherill said the Government had made a “generous” contribution to the Stormwater Management Authority for something that was “actually a local government responsibility”.
He made no assertions more funding would be provided.
“At the request of local government we provided $4 million per annum over 30 years so that they could have a stream of funding to go to a stormwater management authority to essentially put in place the works that were necessary to carry out mitigation,” Mr Weatherill said.
“I’m sure they’d like more money from the State Government but this is principally their responsibility.”
Mr Weatherill said it would be “ideal” if mitigation works were done decades ago and it would take a “number” of years to build the infrastructure to mitigate events similar to this week.