Flooded one day, beautiful the next: How a Brisbane park bounced back from inundation

On a Wednesday morning, I went for a walk in Hanlon Park, also known as Bur’uda, in Stones Corner. Cyclists pedalled by me, and earbudded joggers chugged past.

A mother pushed twins in a pram, kids played on a slide, and a woman lazed on the lawn with her playful German shepherd.

A normal day. And yet, just over a week earlier, the entire area was under several feet of water.

Norman Creek overflows in Brisbane’s Hanlon Park as a result of heavy rain from ex-tropical cyclone Alfred.Credit: Dan Peled

On March 9, in the wake of ex-tropical cyclone Alfred, flash flooding hit the suburb to the height of the road bridges at Cornwall Street and Old Cleveland Road. Roads were closed and cars were swamped. Motorists trapped in a van had to be rescued from rising floodwaters.

Park user Tim recalled the night the cyclone made landfall.

“I’m from New Zealand, so the rain and wind was nothing that I’m not used to,” he said. “But seeing this entire area here flooded, that was bizarre.”

For Jodie Swan, whose business, Stones Corner Veterinary Surgery, abuts the park and was inundated in 2011, it was “a nervous wait”.

“We were prepared, with everything up on benches. We came about two inches from flooding,” she said.

Council swooped in to clean up, removing fallen trees and debris. And a week later, there was surprisingly little evidence of what occurred. There were patches of mud, the underpass at Cornwall Street still had a foot of water, and grassy sedge plants were flattened, as if a careless giant has tap-danced through the reserve.

Former resident Susan Sheppard, who now lives in Toowoomba and, like me, came down to the park for a look, said its flood-resistant rejuvenation in 2022 had achieved its aims.

Hanlon Park after this month’s flood remains largely intact, thanks to the judicious use of plants.Credit: Brisbane City Council

“This was just literally a concrete drain all the way through here. Then, they had this idea to revegetate, which has just been brilliant,” she said.

“The point is, they’ve chosen the right species. These plants stabilise the banks, so it slows everything down. It’s so clever, but it’s just replicating what nature does.”

Hanlon Park’s $21.5 million rejuvenation replaced the century-old drain with a creek, and introduced 462 trees and 43,000 shrubs, as well as seating, a nature-themed playground, and cycleways.

When it officially opened in July 2022, it had already survived the major February-March flood, and it flooded again in December 2024.

Hanlon Park’s upgrade added seating, pathways, a toilet block, a new playground and a naturally flowing creek.Credit: Brisbane City Council

Stephanie Ford is the president of the volunteer-run Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (N4C) that worked with council to restore the creek, and runs a Friends of Hanlon Park working bee on Facebook.

Ford said sedges and lomandras were ideal plants to put in creek beds and on banks to hold them together.

“As they flop over and allow the water to move over them, they’re protecting whatever’s underneath, so they’re protecting the roots of the next one,” she said.

Ford said that while they were thrilled with Hanlon Park and with the council’s cooperative design process, maintaining the park remained a bigger job than council could handle on its own.

Hanlon Park prior to the 2021-2022 rejuvenation project, with the old open drain bisecting the space.Credit: Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee

“With each flood, there’s a little bit more erosion. There’s an allocation for maintenance … but it’s obvious to me that council needs help.”

Deputy Mayor Fiona Cunningham, the councillor for Coorparoo ward, has been spearheading the Norman Creek 2012-2031 Master Plan, of which the Hanlon Park rejuvenation was a key initiative.

“It’s one of our signature projects, and we’ll continue to contribute to it,” Cunningham said.

She said Kingfisher Creek in Woolloongabba was next on the master plan’s agenda.

“These projects can be costly, but they are worthwhile, and we need the support of all levels of government to make them happen,” she said.

Life in Hanlon Park may be getting back to normal, but the same can’t be said for motorists whose cars parked in the adjacent Stones Corner Busway car park were damaged.

Ford said that despite what people may assume, Hanlon Park wasn’t designed for flood mitigation.

“If they had wanted a flood mitigation structure, they would have dug an incredibly deep hole,” she said, and Cunningham concurred.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a flood mitigation project,” she said. “But it’s certainly a flood resilience project.

“I’m not a hydrologist, but the residents that I have spoken to since the park has been upgraded tell me they are better off.”

Still, many were shocked by how quickly the park went under. Ford explained that a creek in the middle of a city isn’t like a creek in a rural area because stormwater rushes into it from roads and buildings, causing rapid rises in the water level, and the potential for greater erosion.

Cunningham agreed, but said that at the end of the day, people need somewhere to live.

“Hanlon Park is a waterway, it’s an active transport corridor, it’s a meeting place,” she said.

“Yes, it’s in a highly urbanised environment, but isn’t it wonderful to be able to have something in that environment that helps us return to nature?”

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