Mackay Regional Council push for $28m flood protection funding

City leaders are pushing for a federal funding injection to make critical repairs to the city’s flood protection system leaving someareas open to high risk. But one leader has already opened up the coffers.

City leaders are pushing for a $27.7 million federal injection for critical repairs to Mackay’s flood protection system that currently leaves areas of the region open to high risk if there is a major wet weather event.

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson said there were three areas of concern, surrounding the city fringe, that would cost $27.7m to reduce any risk of significant flood damage.

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson Mackay. Picture: Michaela Harlow

A flow-on effect of such a “game-changing” move, Cr Williamson said, would be lower insurance premiums for residents and businesses in the community.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese on Wednesday promised a $5m spend towards the project if his party won the next election, as part of a $200m investment each year in disaster prevention and resilience.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese in Mackay, with Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson behind, speaking at a press conference next to the Pioneer River. Picture: Janessa Ekert

The biggest threat is storm tide inundation from the south via existing stormwater outlets in Shellgrit Creek and nearby Mackay Airport.

The plan to fix this, which comes on the back of the region’s most comprehensive ever flood study, is to create a levee bank around the southern end of the airport.

A key finding in the Mackay Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan was that the dominant source of flooding for East and South Mackay was storm tide, not Pioneer River overflow.

Mackay Regional Council is pushing for $27.7m in federal funding for critical repairs to the city’s flood protection system including a levee system behind Mackay Airport.

“There is no levee system around the bottom end of the airport,” Cr Williamson said.

And if there was a major storm tide event, large areas of East Mackay would be flooded.

“We’re talking about storm surge inundation here and river-end flooding,” Cr Williamson sai.

“They’re the two most extreme examples of how … the most houses in Mackay can get wet.”

There is also a “missing link” along the Fursden Creek, Cr Williamson said, that allowed overflow during localised flooding or storm surge backwater from the Pioneer River to escape overland into the Gooseponds.

Upgrading this would “provide a significant amount of protection” for Mackay’s northern urban areas.

“And there is another one in the Pioneer River itself,” Cr Williamson said.

The current training wall at the Ron Camm Bridge, which acted as a de facto levee system, was structurally unsound, he said.

Part of the project includes upgrades to the levee system, adjacent to the Ron Camm training all, that hugs the city fringe along Cemetery Rd, Shakespeare St, Nebo Rd, Gordon St, Milton st and Victoria St

“That’s been there for a very long time … if that were to fail in any future major flood event in the Pioneer River we would have to rely on an old levee bank which stretched from Caneland … towards the old Hospital Bridge.

“That’s a very old levee bank that needs to be renewed and upgraded in terms of its height.”

If the training wall failed in a storm surge, the levee height is not enough to protect the city.

“We’ve got to upgrade that levee bank or upgrade the training wall on the river,” Cr Williamson said.

The cost will total $27,732,861 with more than one third ($12,845,175) needed for the creating the new levee wall near the airport.

The missing link will cost $7,023,686 and the training wall upgrade $7,864,000.

“If those three systems were either in place or fixed up, it’s almost going towards saying – what was once going to be wet would be dry,” Cr Williamson said.

“That’s how significant it is.

“It will certainly have an enormous impact on things like insurance.”

During a stop in Mackay on Wednesday as part of his election campaign, Mr Albanese pledged $5m towards the missing link - which he said was contingent on Labor winning government, not specifically the Dawson seat.

The opposition leader said it was a “practical program” that would protect urban areas if there was a flood event and lower insurance premiums.

“Importantly ... it is far easier to prevent and protect in advance than to wait and then clean up,” Mr Albanese said, adding the money would be available in the first year of government.

Cr Williamson, during the presser, cheekily requested Labor find another $15m toward the upgrades but said the promise was “a great outcome for us”.

“We will not look $5m in the mouth at all ... if we’re able to start this project with a $5m boost from the federal government after the next Federal Election we will find the (rest of the money) to do it,” Cr Williamson said.

Submission have also been made to the Liberal National Party government, he said.

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson is pushing for flood levee money in the lead up to the Federal Election. Picture: Heidi Petith

Cyclone Debbie’s trail of destruction in 2017 prompted Mackay Regional Council to carry out the largest and most complex flood risk study for the town.

The Mackay Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan underwent peer review in 2019 and was unanimously passed at the November 24, 2021 council meeting.

Computer-based models were created to show what occurred during small to extreme flood events, as water rose from tidal surges and the Pioneer River back flowed into creeks including, Goosepond, Sandfly, Shellgrit and Bakers Creeks.

Cr Williamson referred to a worst-case scenario when an unnamed cyclone crossed the coast at Mackay in 1918 at high tide after 12 hours of torrential rain.

The destructive system flattened the city, claiming the lives of 30 people, and pushed a storm surge drenching the streets.

“This is the worst case scenario – it has happened once before,” Cr Williamson said.

“But for all those things to line up … and what’s different now to 1918 is that we do have significant levee systems … that weren’t in place before.

“But you know, water finds its own level and what we are concerned about now is plugging the gaps.”

The council had put a submission to the Federal Government for the funding arguing that $30m was a small figure against the total bill in insurance claims or property damage if a worst-case scenario were to happen again.

“It’s a no-brainer really … its ongoing savings are immense,” Cr Williamson said.

“We can’t do it out of council funds, we absolutely need federal funding to help us do it.

“We’ve had a pretty good hearing from the Federal Government over this so we’re looking for some support … and that may well be an outcome of the federal budget which is coming down in a few months.”