Justice at last for flood victims

Almost nine years after their homes, businesses and lives were devastated during the Brisbane floods of January 2011, 6800 claimants who sued the Queensland government and Wivenhoe Dam managers received justice on Friday. NSW Supreme Court Justice Robert Beech-Jones found the dam operators were negligent in the lead-up to the deluge, failing to take rainfall forecasts into account. As a result, about 23,000 homes and businesses went under in Brisbane and Ipswich after authorities released vast amounts of water to safeguard the dam’s structure. Depending on whether the Palaszczuk government appeals, the ruling may leave the state’s taxpayers to pay compensation that could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Friday’s ruling vindicates the reporting of The Weekend Australian’s Hedley Thomas. As early as January 17, 2011, Thomas raised questions about whether much of the flooding could have been avoided had the dam operators released greater volumes of water the weekend before the deluge hit on Monday, January 10. Instead, Wivenhoe’s level soared from 106 per cent on Friday, January 7, to 148 per cent on Saturday, January 8, to peak at 191 per cent on Tuesday, January 11.

Combing through official records, Thomas later uncovered contradictions between the official documents and what dam engineers told the inquiry. As a result of his reports, Supreme Court Justice Catherine Holmes reopened hearings at the floods inquiry, later concluding that the Wivenhoe Dam had been mismanaged. As Thomas writes on Saturday, his collaboration with John Craigie, a nurseryman who ran a small business near the dam, and with chemical engineer Mick O’Brien allowed them to uncover critical facts in 2011 and 2012, cutting through officials’ walls of spin, concealment, bullying and misinformation.

As Michael McKenna has revealed recently, southeast Queensland’s water storage problems are far from over. On Friday, coinciding with the Wivenhoe ruling, Queensland’s Natural Resources Minister Anthony Lynham announced an inquiry into Paradise Dam north of Brisbane, to be led by retired Supreme Court judge John Byrne. The Palaszczuk government was warned about the safety of the Paradise Dam four years ago, before it acted to release 105,000 megalitres of water, pouring it into the ocean during one of the region’s worst droughts. The dam is vital for the state’s largest agricultural area, growing sugar, macadamias, avocados and sweet potatoes and employing a quarter of Queensland farm workers. Safety is also paramount; as is proper structure and competent management. Serious questions remain on those counts.