North Wagga Submission for BMT Group Peer Review

NORTH WAGGA RESIDENTS’ ASSOCIATION MARCH 2021 | Fi Ziff
methods wherever possible”. It also states the social and economic needs of the community must be
satisfied, and that options be community supported.
Contrary to the Floodplain Guidelines, the 2018 FRMP is in our view flawed for the following reasons:
1) Critical information pertaining to the unsustainable emotional and financial trauma endured
by Residents as a direct result of flooding and inadequate protection, is omitted.
2) Critical feedback from all prior community consultation, conducted in the aftermath of the
catastrophic 2012 flood, all favouring a 1 in 100 levee for North Wagga, is omitted and in its
place targeted feedback that has been specifically cherry-picked to skew it towards a foregone
conclusion.
3) Critical information presented in all preceding flood reports that favour a 1 in 100 levee as the
best option for North Wagga is omitted, and it contradicts arguments used in the 2009 FRPMP
to support the recommendation of a 1 in 100 levee upgrade for Central/CBD.
4) The cumulative effects on flood levels of the thickened vegetation and the Main City Levee
upgrade, which expose North Wagga to the increased risk of a Council-made flood, are not
considered in the 2018 FRMP.
5) Lacks assessment of intermediate Levee options.
6) Relies on a weak Multi-Criteria Assessment Matrix.
With clear direction from a Senior Council Staff member during a 2017 committee meeting, that Council
do not wish to spend any money in North Wagga, the committee members confidently signed off on a flood
report which justifies further study of either VHR or VP, or a token levee which will see the inundation of
174 properties in an event slightly higher than a 1 in 20 flood event, increasing to 215 during a 1 in 100
flood event equating to an Average Annual Damages bill of approx. $1,583,000.
North Wagga Residents (the Residents) are facing a heightened risk of flood which will be largely Councilmade,
and proper protection in the form of a 1 in 100 levee is required as a matter of urgency. To deny
North Wagga, in the way Council has done and continues to do, is not incompetence, it is in our view
negligence. It is emotionally and financially the right thing to do to relieve Residents of the unsustainable
emotional and financial trauma attributable to regular flooding. The current situation is not justifiable,
particularly in light of the fact that Federal and State provide technical and financial support to avoid it
wherever possible, nor is it ethical.
The Association trusts that the Peer Review will highlight the flaws in the current flood plan and
recommend that in accordance with previous studies, community consultations, reports and the State
Policy Guidelines, Council should make arrangements to implement the 1 in 100 levee in North Wagga
without further delay to avoid another catastrophe and the legal consequences that may eventuate.
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