Numurkah Flood Mitigation plans progressing rapidly

Published on 23 July 2021

Development of the Numurkah Flood Mitigation project is going full steam ahead with alignment work for the proposed levee nearing completion.

Cr Kevin Bourke, who is Chair of the Numurkah Flood Mitigation Implementation Committee, said great progress had been achieved with the alignment work.

“There has been a huge volume of work undertaken by this Committee in collaboration with our project managers, Council’s engineering staff and the appointed consultants,” Cr Bourke said.

“The most recent work included a comprehensive land survey to identify the detailed footprint of the different levee construction techniques, such as earthen or concrete, to clearly show what the impact would be on public and private land.

“Of course, there is some final tweaking and modelling still required in order to ensure all stakeholders are receiving maximum benefit.

“In addition we must comply with the project’s costs versus benefits requirements, as this will be crucial when it comes time to apply for state and federal funding.

“Obviously, there have been many challenges, as you would expect with a project of this magnitude, however common sense solutions have been sought and found.”

Cr Bourke said the detailed designs will keep refining while the development of a Cultural Heritage Management Plan as well as a Native Vegetation Assessment is completed prior to submitting a planning permit.

“This long-term project is in direct response to the Numurkah Floodplain Management Study, commissioned in 2017, which explored options to protect the Numurkah township from a flood event that has a 1% likelihood of occurring in any year,” he said.

“This type of flood event would be fairly rare, but it would be of extreme magnitude and an automated upstream flood warning system has already been installed.