Missing details confound Paradise Dam probe

Mystery surrounds the construction of Queensland’s defective Paradise Dam after critical documents go missing.

Paradise Dam.

Mystery surrounds the construction and early operation of Queensland’s defective Paradise Dam with the discovery that more than five years of critical records have gone missing.

Ahead of a public inquiry next year, it has been revealed that only a “few records’’ exist after the 2005 opening by the Beattie government of the 300,000 megalitre dam that sustained major damage in the 2013 floods.

The critical “construction report” detailing the implementation of the roller-compacted concrete design of the $200m dam is among documents that can’t be found.

Acting Inspector-General of Emergency Management Alistair Dawson, who last week deemed the dam was “well below” safety standards, had to rely on recent engineering and operational records to conduct his review into the risk to the local community.

It was ordered after state water agency SunWater was forced to release 105,000ML in September because of safety fears about the 52m-high wall of the dam.

In his report, Mr Dawson criticised SunWater for delays in disclosing the dangers of the state-owned dam, near Bundaberg, to the local community.

He said that despite emerging evidence of design and structural problems with the dam, the Bundaberg Regional Council was told of the extent of the safety risks only in December.

“At the time of the commencement of the office’s review, BRC did not fully understand these new risks and how a failure of Paradise Dam would change the flood risk for downstream properties as this information had not yet been provided by SunWater,’’ he said.

Mr Dawson said SunWater did not inform the council it was conducting extensive new flood modelling — which included the possibility of a dam failure.

He said the failure was in breach of the recommendations of the 2012 Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry final report, which stipulated that flood studies should be conducted in consultation with local councils.

“Bundaberg Regional Council advised they may have had information to improve the SunWater model if they had known at the time that a new model was being developed,’’ Mr Dawson said.

The Palaszczuk government ordered an inquiry into the dam — to be headed by former Supreme Court judge John Byrne — after being widely criticised for in­action over structural issues with the dam and then refusing to detail the safety fears until December.

In November, The Australian revealed that the “construction ­report” was missing.

The dam was built between 2003 and 2005 by the Beattie government through a private-public alliance.

One of the alliance’s key partners, Walter Construction Group, was already facing a lawsuit over shoddy workmanship on another major Queensland project a year before it began building the dam.

The company went into administration just months before the dam was completed.

In his report, Mr Dawson confirmed the “construction report” — which is regarded as critical to maintenance of the dam — was not the only document missing.

“Few records exist for the period immediately after the dam’s construction in 2005 and before it filled in 2010,” Mr Dawson said.

In his 125-page report, Mr Dawson said the dam would be unlikely to be able to withstand a repeat of the 2013 floods, which damaged a slab underneath the spillway and led to the evacuation of 5000 people in Bundaberg.