As part of the annual Emergency Action Plan review for the Ross River Dam, consideration should be given to the potential impacts of operating the gate outside automatic mode and whether this event has provided any new information and learnings which can be incorporated into the Emergency Action Plan. This should occur prior to the 2019/20 wet season.

The operation and maintenance of flood gauges should be developed and planned for on a catchment basis.

Significant effort should be invested to provide disaster decision-makers at every level with a shared understanding of risks, the situation, and capability, so that they can agree on the best decisions for the communities they serve. 

Queensland should examine the feasibility of the installation of storm tide markers in prominent public places and the exploration of new technology to highlight storm tide risk to the community and its visitors. 

Establish a State-wide resourcing capability to support incident management teams, regional coordination centres, zone emergency centres, relief centres, recovery centres and State control centres. some of the features of such a capability should include: a) multi-agency, cross-government, State-wide pool of incident management and emergency management personnel building on the State incident management team concept currently facilitated by the Country Fire Service, and expanded to include all hazards, multiagency teams with a roster that provides year-round coverage b) a system that enables staff and volunteers from any agency to identify their availability for upcoming shifts c) a rostering system that enables one or more incident management teams, staging areas, regional coordination centres, State control centres and relief centres to develop, maintain and distribute rosters and structure charts in a more coordinated manner d) identifying areas of expertise for key incident and emergency management functions (e.g. public information, alerts and warning, media liaison, logistics and resource management) that would benefit from a coordinated and resource pooling approach and take steps to implement (consider the Mapping Functional Support Group model as a potential service delivery model).

Review existing electronic information systems used by emergency services organisations and other government agencies, and: a) establish a single incident information system across the Emergency Services Sector (MFS, CFS and SES), and b) identify opportunities to consolidate incident information systems of other agencies

That the State Emergency Service explores options for providing suitable personal protective clothing to personnel from supporting emergency services during major flooding events and sandbagging operations.

That systems for Automatic Vehicle Location and personnel tracking be implemented within the emergency services sector.

State Disaster Coordination Centre considers requesting a representative from critical infrastructure owners be present as a liaison officer in the State Disaster Coordination Centre during activations for events that may impact on their assets.

Agency incident management preparedness: a more comprehensive approach to planning, including the number of personnel, their training and better use of on-the-ground intelligence in the affected areas that enables immediate and strategic decision-making to be concurrent processes.

Agency incident management preparedness: refining IT tools to process the intelligence.

Agency incident management preparedness: provide clarity and certainty in specific roles and responsibilities for each agency.

the state ensure that any new systems and equipment purchased by state emergency management agencies are interoperable with other relevant agencies to the fullest extent possible. This should involve the state establishing a procurement gateway process with input from the Emergency Services Commissioner.

the state take the necessary measures to upgrade existing manual stream and rain gauges and ensure that all future gauges provide a seamless transfer of data from the gauges to the Bureau of Meteorology.

the state clarify the role of intelligence cell staff (for example, hydrologists and/or Catchment Management Authority) who are utilised in Incident Control Centres during flood events

That agencies assess the cost-effectiveness of establishing a dedicated and proven asset management information system which is integrated with the other information systems used to manage drainage assets.