Revealed: the urgent upgrade needed to prevent the Gold Coast’s disaster centre becoming a bloody disaster

The Gold Coast needs to spend $16m on a new disaster management centre because of a glaring problem with the existing facility.

THE Gold Coast needs a new disaster management centre – because the existing building is an “engineering disaster” with a failing roof which could not withstand a Category 3 cyclone.

Senior council bureaucrats at transport committee meeting, where councillors backed a plan to seek a contract for a new disaster management unit, estimated the cost for a new building could be as much as $16 million.

Photograph of storm on the Gold Coast skyline - used in presentation on disaster management at the Gold Coast City Council.

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Councillors recommended Mayor Tom Tate write to the Prime Minister and Queensland Premier to get co-funding for a new disaster centre which would provide support for southeast Queensland, including the city’s nearest neighbours at Logan.

A council report explained the Coast needed a new DMU due to COVID-19, with the city “standing up” its disaster management to a higher “districts level” for the past 223 days due to COVID-19. This level had not been triggered for eight years.

Mayor Tom Tate at the local Disaster Coordination Centre. Pic: Tim Marsden.

Councillors were told the existing facilities could not cope with a Category 3 cyclone, that a roof was falling in and southern section of a building sinking.

“New data in relation to the likelihood of extreme weather events, including modelling indicating a higher potential for Category 5 cyclones on the Gold Coast, all support the need for a new DMC able to meet future needs,” a council report said.

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Officers told a transport committee meeting today the existing buildings could not withstand a Category 3 cyclone with the roofing likely to fall in and one section starting to sink.

Transport director Alton Twine warned councillors “if the chips go down this is our remaining asset to manage the city”.

“The existing facility is just a shed. It will have to be demolished,” he said.

Mr Twine said council had begun with a $5 million to $8 million estimate for a building upgrade which had climbed to beyond $10 million.

Disaster management centre photographs - presented at a Gold Coast City Council transport committee meeting.

Outside the meeting, Mayor Tom Tate told the Bulletin: “We are overdue for a Category 3 cyclone and if it does hit and the disaster management centre gets smashed, then we’ve lost control and communications and decision making, and it could be a real bloody disaster.

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“The facility has been outgrown, the roof problem, the building is sinking. It’s not fit for purpose any longer. It’s an opportunity to do best practice disaster management. The handling of disaster has dramatically changed.”

The new facility would provide accommodation and a helipad, and be similar to recent stand-alone centres built in north Queensland.

“The Category 3 (cyclone) is coming, we really have to make it secure, that it’s a Category 5 for cyclone. If it hits, this stands,” Cr Tate said.

Photograph of disaster management centre - presented at a transport committee meeting at the Gold Coast City Council.

“It’s got to be state of the art (communication), back-up units, generators, even satellite so we can continue with our communication even while the city has gone down. When you add all that up, I view our disaster unit here as not just the Gold Coast, it’s southeast Queensland region disaster, because in the past we have helped out with Logan, Scenic Rim, Tweed with resources, fire trucks and beds. We are already a regional leader in the area of disaster.”