Huge fill needed to floodproof riverside development site
About 6.5m of fill is needed to raise part of a proposed Yeronga development site above the 2011 flood level, a councillor claims.
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About 6.5m of fill is needed to raise part of a proposed Yeronga development site above the 2011 flood level, a councillor claims.
The Forrest family, which has owned the 143 Hyde Rd property known as “the horse paddock’’ for many years, said they were selling because of crippling taxes.
The huge site is zoned light industrial on its highest, Hyde Rd end, and zoned for sports and recreation on the lower section fronting The Corso.
In the 2011 floods about 170 properties around The Corso went under up to their eaves, but Peter Forrest said they had commissioned a study showing the area could be flood-proofed with a series of backflow prevention valves, barriers and fill of various heights.
Councillor Nicole Johnston (Tennyson) described that as “fanciful’’.
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“I am very concerned about the misleading nature of material promising to ‘eliminate flooding in Yeronga’,’’ she said.
“No development application (DA) has been lodged with council for the site and the proposal hasn’t been independently assessed by Council engineers or hydrologists,’’ Cr Johnston said.
“The lowest point of the land is 1.8m. The 2011 flood level for the site is 7.8m and to get a habitable floor level the general planning rule is to add 0.5m.
“To achieve flood immunity for development on this site, and this is only a rough estimate, at least 6.5m of fill would be needed.
“That’s the height of a two-storey building of fill.
“I do not support this fanciful proposal.’’
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Mr Forrest said fill heights would vary from 0.5m to 5m at different parts of the site, but said there already was a 6m wall obscured by trees and that filling could be done unobtrusively.
He held a public meeting on Tuesday to gauge views.
“We’re just trying to leave the community with a liveable precinct to minimise the impacts of their homes being inundated and damaged, with all the emotional trauma (of that),’’ he said.
Cr Johnston said a leaflet letterboxed to residents did not include any details of the small-lot retirement village the family proposed and called it a “push poll’’.
She said, instead, council needed to start work on a long-promised trunk drainage upgrade, something she was pushing with new Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.
“In the interim, I have written to Cr Schrinner about buying back this site as a park, following his announcement to increase park, sport and recreational land across Brisbane using council’s future fund,’’ Cr Johnston said.
Mr Forrest said Yeronga did not need another park.
“They are struggling to maintain the 30ha of green space there now,’’ he said.
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