Northern Rivers floods: Woodburn, Brodwater residents sign up in droves to sue federal and state government
Residents claim a major highway upgrade made their towns more flood-prone, now an entire town has signed up to sue the Australian government.
Lismore
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The people of the Northern Rivers are gearing up for a fight.
Residents of Richmond and Clarence River communities are proving their people power as a class-action lawsuit targeting the state and federal governments nears 1000 signatures.
Woodburn residents Vanessa Allport and Lyndall Murray believe the nearly $5 billion Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade turned their town into a dam where flood water couldn’t pass through it.
They say the state and federal governments ignored the concerns of the community when consultations occurred in 2017.
The pair say- since the highway upgrade- flood waters do not flow out to the Evans Head riverways instead the body of water builds up and sits inside the towns causing more damage.
The project was completed in 2020.
Mrs Murray says the lawsuit now has the entire town of Woodburn signed up with a senior QC reportedly about to be recruited to take on the case.
Ms Allport got Nick Crouch, a partner from Sydney law firm Crouch Amirbeaggi, to take on the case and in the first 12 hours of launching the proposal it received hundreds of signatures.
The entire town of Woodburn has signed up with signatures getting close to 1000 including people from Grafton and Broadwater.
“That was to be expected everyone feels the same way,” she said.
“Broadwater is the same, Wardell, and when we get enough time to be in Lismore we will get it as well.
“They are also affected by it because it backs up in their direction as well, they’ve all been let down”.
Mrs Allport says there was originally hope that the lawsuit would spur the governments to listen carefully to their demands and lay out their plans to help communities but she says it is likely they will proceed with suing the government regardless.
“That’s the preferred option but we will still be going forward with it - people are voicing that it’s what they want,” she said.
“This is especially people in Broadwater, Woodburn and Wardell
“They feel like no-one is listening to them.”
The lawsuit is a line in the sand for residents from Wardell to Grafton who are crying out for support and acknowledgment as they rebuild.
“Nothing has changed for me, I am still at a standstill - I have to raise my house before I can do any work on it, it will cost between 50,000 and 60,000 dollars before I start on renovation,” Allport said.
She also says the thing spurring on residents to fight on with the lawsuit is the overarching feeling that they don’t want to leave their town and ensure it is liveable in the future.
Transport for NSW responded to the original class-action proposal saying that the Minister for Regional Roads and Transport, Deputy Premier Paul Toole asked the transport body to “engage with landowners living alongside the Pacific Highway at Woodburn”.
“Transport for NSW is committed to understanding the recent flood events and how they interacted with the highway and communities. This work is expected to take some months to complete.”
The department also reaffirmed the work done before the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade saying minimising the “impact of the upgrade on water flow and drainage was an important objective during the design and construction of the highway”.
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