Respect the river's lesson says expert

LAVISH inner-northern Brisbane developments should be safe from future flooding.

So says QUT Professor of urban and regional planning, Doug Baker. He believes developers, such as those at Northshore Hamilton, would have taken heed of lessons learned decades ago.

``After the ‘74 floods, there was a lot of concern at the planning level to flood-proof us for the 100-year flood,’’ he said.

``If you look at most of the flooding that occurred in the southern area along Toowong and UQ, and down through Oxley, a lot of those were older subdivisions in older suburbs.’‘

Prof. Baker said recent subdivisions should cope with sudden flooding provided planners included flood mitigation features.

``With a lot of the new developments, they’re prepared within the 100-year flood line,’’ he said.

``My gut reaction is that the zoning should provide for that level of flooding and there should be mitigation features in place.’‘

Prof. Baker said he was confident new developers were less likely to be ``lulled into a false sense of security’‘.

``Everybody was fooled by the fact that we had a dam and thought it would never flood again,’‘he said.

``We’re struggling to try and understand the flood limits.’’

Provided developers learned from the latest deluge, the professor said their properties should emerge unscathed from future flooding.

``These floods have raised the profile of the river and reminded us of its unpredictability and these developments need to keep that in mind and respect it.’’

Source: whereilive