QLD Why so much building in flood zones?

In Brissie at the moment on the train passing tonnes of New estates clearly built in flood zones.

How do developers get the go ahead to release land in these locations? Or is that Ok and it is up to the buyer to do their DD and risk assessments?

Seems like a problem waiting to happen?

 

Developers do not release land. Generally Developers buy from a farmer in which the land has a rural or light commercial zoning and then develop it as a residential estate. The Developer has to apply to the Council for rezoning as residential. In the rezoning application they will provide a plan of the proposal and a preliminary engineering design for roads, sewerage and stormwater and a big fat application fee to council. The council doesnt care that it is in a flood zone they just want a document to say that there is an 'engineering' solution that mitigates the flooding risk. The council wants the DA fees and the eventual rates. The 'engineers' dont care that their designs are inadequate. They get paid and put a lot of disclaimers into their modelling. This land is almost always in difficult conditions otherwise another developer would have bought it years or decades ago. The Developer may have to pay a bit more to provide some culverts and some parkland for an overland flow detention basin but they are laughing all the way to the bank. In essence it is the Councils who allow this to occur but it is Buyer Beware. Frankly it is probably perfectly fine to build a house on this land but the house should never be a slab on ground, brick veneer structure. A modern version of a Qlder would be more appropriate on steel columns to keep the termites away. Noone wants a modern Qlder though. A brick veneer dogbox is generally what most developers sell as house and land packages. Yep it is a problem waiting to happen. Thats why the gumbies that buy these houses have huge insurance premiums.

 

Where, @hammer?

Real Brisbane, or Logan and Ipswich where the lowest priced land is located (for a reason)

 

Been noticing it coming in on the Redcliffe train line. Murrumba Downs, rothwell, parts of carseldine....All brand new and clearly in swamps.

 

I hadn't thought of these! I drive through Carseldine and Rothwell regularly but I don't take any notice of new housing once I've given it the initial "rolls eyes". The train line is elevated for a good reason though (;

 

It doesn't help when the local councils don't clear the water catchment areas and then the water backs up and floods estates so the flood maps can be deceptive. A lot of the more expensive housing around the Brisbane river has known to flood anyway so it's nothing new.

 

I'm not sure about the north side but Ipswich and especially Logan don't allow new construction in flood zones.

 

I figured now is a good time to resurrect this thread.

I grew up in Townsville and know the lie of the land reasonably well. Looking at the footage from the floods and Google maps it would appear Idalia (one of the suburbs worst hit) is all low set cookie cutter places on small blocks. A new development that didn't exist when I lived there.

That part of town is well known for going underwater.....

This sort of development just blows my mind.

I really feel sorry for the poor people affected but surely we need to rethink how we allow land to be developed?

These disasters are bad enough without us kicking our own goals ...

 

@hammer

ignorance is bliss

quote:
"Professor Jonathan Nott, a palaeohazards expert at James Cook University in Cairns, says part of the problem is that we “continue to build in the path of floods,” regardless of history, and allow populations to increase in low-lying floodplains."
Top 10 worst floods in Australia - Australian Geographic

 

It pays to be a local aye !

I personally steer away from low lying land but I suppose councils look at previous rain model events to work out possible chance of flooding ( chances-of-a-flood ). With ever changing weather events and Australia itself being pretty new, I suppose the records keep on breaking but it amazes me how quick people forget when areas flood and are happy to buy back in that area a few years down the track.

 

I wouldn’t buy property north of Gladstone, in reality, north of Noosa due to cyclones.

Obviously, a lot of people have a different point of view to me. That is the world we live in.

 

I can't find the link but I have read from when the British and the Convict's first sailed up the Brisbane River and the base camp was started on the inner city where the old windmill is ..There where marks in the trees on the old iornbarks gumtrees where a flood has passed through several years before and that would have covered the entire CBD,and roma st train station if you line up the levels from the windmill down the park into roma st..

That's why always make sure your insurances are up to date,just because it's never happened means nothing..imho..

 

I know some people who bought down there, well above flood levels etc. We queried why they built lowset but they said they were the highest in the street and didn't need to (single storey covenant etc). Last Sunday morning, they were 12" from water lapping at the doors. Other half was stuck in the mines and couldn't be relieved on his shift.

Needless to say, they're in a rental for the next 6 months.

 

tick tick tick for Brisbane... I think the general belief now is that "last time it was purely caused by not releasing water earlier from Wivenhoe". Quite likely, but also does not mean the risk has completely gone.

Dams / other measures have been built to mitigate the sorts of floods they were having 130 years ago: (1893 Brisbane flood - Wikipedia) but I still have my doubts on whether the risk is minimal in the next 10 years. Especially given how dry Brisbane has been over the last 2-3 years, I think the odds of a very wet / flood season coming "sometime soon" get higher and higher.

 

Queensland has always had quite corrupt and bad planning that's why you don't have hardly any old buildings around or much green space in the CBD. CBD. Its just about whatever the developers want to do and any construction is seen as favorable no matter what it is as long as something is happening. it was only a couple of years ago that Campbell Newman bored and legislation that developers didn't have to consider rising sea levels every single local government council and their known to be quite corrupt in Queensland , even wrote to him saying this was a terrible idea and that they would end up having to foot big bills for this. he just did it to help out his developer mates. Basically Queensland has a long legacy of bad planning and it's very difficult to change that mentality.

 

Looks like it's time to resurrect this thread...sigh...