As south-east Queensland is smashed by storms ahead of the official wet season, the author of two books on the Brisbane floods says governments should prepare with flood resilient developments and buildings, not dam releases.
Brisbane barrister, David Topp, got a close-up experience of extreme weather when (from a neighbouring suburb) he observed a block of new apartments being flooded in Tennyson in 2011.
‘I saw quite a lot of the damage, but thankfully did not suffer any,’ says Mr Topp. He wrote a book about the experience called Tennyson Breach.
Author David Topp
His latest book, Brisbane Breached: The story of a Drought Defaulted Floodplain, argues against approving housing and business developments in flood-prone areas and argues for flood resilient buildings.
Dam releases waste water
Mr Topp also says conserving the water that falls in flooding rain events is vital.
He says Brisbane is more prone to drought than flood and needs water to be conserved, not wasted in pre-emptive dam releases which he argues do not mitigate floods.
‘The lack of pre-emptive Wivenhoe Dam releases informed an allegation of negligence in the 2011 floods class-action lawsuit. The Appeal Court found the flood engineers did not act beyond a range of reasonable discretion in failing to have made the water releases the claimants called for.’
‘In the floods of 2022 and 2025, pre-emptive releases would have made the situation in Brisbane worse, as waters released from Wivenhoe Dam would have merged with the excessive rains falling on Brisbane,’ Mr Topp says.
Stop approving developments in flood prone areas
In Brisbane Breached, Mr Topp argues all three levels of government and the community should turn their focus to planning and flood resilience.
Flooded streets of Brisbane in 1893 IMAGE Qld State Archives
He quotes Suncorp CEO Steve Johnson saying earlier this year: ‘A century of planning laws… put people in harm’s way by allowing construction activity in inadequate locations.’
A recent example is a proposed development in North Ipswich, on a flood prone reach of the Bremer River, which the developer justified by citing the housing supply and homelessness crisis. Ipswich Council is considering the development application.
Gaps between floods shortening
The need for better planning and more flood resilient buildings is urgent, Mr Topp says, because severe weather events are becoming more frequent.
‘The Brisbane River’s fourth and fifth largest flood events (in 2011 and 2022) were separated by only 11 years. Before 2022, the respective time gaps linking the first, second, third and fourth largest reliably recorded flood events were 52, 81 and 37 years,’ he writes in Brisbane Breached.
Brisbane’s famous Fish Lane in South Brisbane had actual fish swimming through it during the 2022 Floods. IMAGE BCC
The book quotes a Weekend Australian editorial writer making the salient point that ‘It doesn’t matter whether you believe in climate change or not because insurance companies do believe in it and are adjusting their premiums accordingly.’
A recent Climate Council report, Uninsurable Nation, lists Australia’s ten most climate-vulnerable places which include Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Lockyer Creek and the Scenic Rim.
QLD could be least insurable state
The Climate Council says Queensland is on ‘a high risk trajectory of becoming the most collectively uninsurable state’ in Australia by 2030.
Mr Topp also warns (in line with Brisbane Mayor Adrian Schrinner) that the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics could fall during a drought year, meaning unprecedented demand for water while supplies are low.
The 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics could fall in a drought year. IMAGE Olympics.com
He says the water conservation mindset adapted by Brisbane residents during the Millenium Drought needs to be entrenched long-term and that dams should adhere to their main purpose of water storage, not flood mitigation.
‘In the fully built-out, next-to-no greenfield sites, floodplain city Brisbane is and a city fed by many more watercourses than the Brisbane River, dams are anything but a silver bullet which, if only they could be operated “properly”, would permanently floodproof the city,’ Mr Topp writes.
Instead, what’s needed is local, state and federal governments cooperating to balance the need to ensure housing is not built on lands at proven risk of flooding while maximising housing supply to drive down prices for renters and buyers.
Mr Topp welcomes the ‘Building back better’ slogan and policies supporting ‘re-building houses with structures impervious to water and/or deregulating zoning restrictions to allow homeowners to raise houses and evade future floods.
‘This was a pragmatic policy shift Brisbane City Council rightly implemented immediately after 2011.’
Mr Topp said former Chief Justice Paul de Jersey’s Brisbane City Council 2022 Flood Review recommendation that the Flood Resilient Home Program be continued and expanded, by identifying other flood affected areas that could benefit from the program, was ‘a welcome addition to the debate’.
‘Brisbane will be breached again, if not by flooding, by drought and all the existential fear and distress droughts bring,’ Mr Topp says.
Brisbane has experienced more drought years than flood years in recent history. IMAGE RedCharlie
‘The ball is firmly in the court of all three levels of government to render all previous assumptions redundant and grasp the policy nettles which arise from living in a drought-prone city built, literally, on a flood plain.’
Brisbane Breached: The story of a drought defaulted floodplain is published by Connor Court Publishing and retails for $39.95
IMAGE of Brisbane River flood map at top of story: BCC
