Oakey residents call on Toowoomba Regional Council to act on flood mitigation after recent rain event

After more than 170mm dropped on Oakey during last month’s major heavy rain event, residents are again calling on the council to do more to protect the town.

FLOODED: Footage shows floodwaters hitting Tara Duffy's house off Belcher Street in Oakey.

The Toowoomba Regional Council says it is still working on plans to curb the risk of major flooding in Oakey, despite concerns from residents that the small town was being ignored.

Homeowners in the small town west of Toowoomba were reminded of the flood potential of the Oakey Creek after more than 170mm dropped on the town between February 25-27, while the upstream Cooby Dam started spilling into the river system.

The creek burst its banks at several points and flooded a number of properties, although the council said no one’s homes were inundated.

The council said the water depth at Arthur Shooter Memorial Park’s gauge was about 2.4m on February 26.

It was the first major emergency since the council scrapped a $98m plan to divert part of the creek, which would’ve protected hundreds of homes.

Since then, the council has completed flood mapping showing 800 Oakey properties were at varying levels of risk.

Resident Tara Duffy, who lives close to the river and whose land was submerged within hours, said the council needed to develop a strategy to prevent further flood events, saying she had not heard anything since the diversion project was scrapped.

“Our shed took two foot of water through, and (machinery) is dead, but also our water pumps,” she said.

“I know Cory Street was flood-affected, we just want them to do something, not nothing.

“I’ve got council land across the river from me — it could be dug out and make the creek deeper.

“They had an opportunity to dig that out — they’re doing nothing for the Oakey community.”

In response to the criticisms, infrastructure chair Councillor Carol Taylor said the council was working on a number of strategies “in the background”, but that there was unlikely to be a “silver bullet”.

“Oakey is not forgotten, and we’re working behind the scenes,” she said.

“(Residents) need to be confident our teams are working behind the scenes and it’s mainly in the headwaters, like using flood fences.

It’s going on in the background, for instance we’ve worked with Queensland Rail to get rail bridges that act like dams.

“We’ve never promised it won’t flood, we’ve just promised we will try to mitigate it.”