INQ210

Councils should conduct education campaigns directed to ensuring that all residents and property owners in areas identified as being at risk of backflow flooding are aware of the circumstances in which backflow flooding can occur, the hazard it presents and what should be done if it occurs.

Councils and the Queensland Government should display on their websites all flood mapping they have commissioned or adopted.

Flood maps, and property specific flooding information intended for use by the general public, should be readily interpretable and should, where necessary, be accompanied by a comprehensible explanatory note.

Queensland Urban Utilities, and other distributor-retailers and councils, that have identified a practice of stormwater drains being connected to sewerage infrastructure, should conduct a program of education to raise public awareness that this practice is illegal and impedes the operation of the

The Queensland Government, in consultation with councils, should determine which urban areas in Queensland do not have access to flood information from a current flood study.

By reference to the order of priority determined in accordance with recommendation 2.5, the Queensland Government and councils should together ensure that the council responsible for each urban area in Queensland has access to current flood study information. This will include determining: a.

Councils and distributor-retailers should agree to protocols for the exchange of information about suspected illegal connections, the steps being taken to investigate them or the basis for concluding that no investigation is required, and the results of any investigations or enforcement actions.<

Carriers, councils and the Australian Communications and Media Authority should take into account the risk of flooding when considering the placement of telecommunications facilities.

Elected representatives from councils should be informed of the results of each flood study relevant to the council’s region, and consider the ramifications of the study for land planning and emergency management.

If the Queensland Government does not include such assessment criteria in the model flood planning controls, councils should consider including assessment criteria in their planning schemes which require that works in a floodplain: • do not reduce on-site flood storage capacity • counteract any c

Councils should consider providing advice to development applicants during pre-lodgement meetings, and at the time of receiving a development application, about the way in which the development will be assessed for flood risk and what flood information council will be relying on to make this asse

The Bundaberg Regional Council should investigate the adequacy of the drain and take reasonable steps to ensure the Moore Park area is effectively served.

Elected representatives from all agencies involved in a flood study should be informed of recommendations made for future work, and determine, on a risk basis, whether that further work is to be completed.

All councils should periodically conduct risk assessments to identify areas at risk of backflow flooding. In respect of such areas, councils should consider how such risks can be lessened, including in that process consideration of the installation of backflow prevention devices.

Toowoomba Regional Council should engage external consultants to carry out failure impact assessments on the detention basins along East Creek.

If the Queensland Government does not include such assessment criteria in model flood planning controls, councils should include assessment criteria in their planning schemes that require community infrastructure (including the types of community infrastructure which are identified in the Sustain

Toowoomba Regional Council and the Department of Environment and Resource Management should continue to co-operate to assess the referable dam status of existing detention basins and any future detention basins constructed in the West Creek and East Creek catchment areas.

Councils in floodplain areas should, resources allowing, develop comprehensive floodplain management plans that accord as closely as practicable with best practice principles.

If the Queensland Government does not include such assessment criteria in the model flood planning controls, councils should include assessment criteria in their planning schemes that require the impact of flood on commercial property to be minimised.

If the Queensland Government does not include a requirement for such an overlay map in the model flood planning controls, councils should include a flood overlay map in their planning schemes.

If the Queensland Government does not include such assessment criteria in the model flood planning controls, councils should consider including assessment criteria in their planning schemes that address: • the prospect of isolation or hindered evacuation • the impact of isolation or hindered evac

If the Queensland Government does not include such a code in the model flood planning controls, councils should include in their planning schemes a flood overlay code that consolidates assessment criteria relating to flood.

Councils should ensure that, when applications for environmentally relevant activities are approved by a council, the details of those activities, including their nature and location, are provided to the Department of Environment and Resource Management.

If the Queensland Government does not include such assessment criteria in the model flood planning controls, councils should include assessment criteria in their planning schemes that require that: a.

Councils should consider implementing a property buy-back program in areas that are particularly vulnerable to regular flooding, as part of a broader floodplain management strategy, where possible obtaining funding from the Natural Disaster Resilience Program for this purpose.

When approving applications for development which involve the manufacture or storage of hazardous materials, councils should not restrict the conditions imposed to ones which are solely reliant on human intervention to remove the materials in the event of flood.

If the Queensland Government does not include such a policy in the model flood planning controls, councils should include a planning scheme policy in their planning schemes that sets out the information to be provided in development applications in relation to stormwater and flooding.

Councils should review their assessment processes to ensure that: • the person with primary responsibility for the assessment of the development application considers what expert input is required • where a development application is subject to comment by a number of professionals, the responsibi

As far as is practicable, councils should maintain up-to-date flood information

Councils (particularly Brisbane City Council) should consider including in their planning schemes more stringent standards for the design and construction of prescribed tidal work than those in the code for development applications for prescribed tidal work in the Coastal Protection and Managemen

Councils should take care when imposing conditions to ensure that each condition has purpose; standardised conditions should not be included where they have no application to the development in question.

Councils should not rely on a condition requiring an evacuation plan as the sole basis for approving a development susceptible to flooding.

The Queensland Government should continue to assess and review the adequacy of work procedures DS 5.1 and 5.3, having regard to the need for flood mitigation manuals to reflect the will of the executive.

The Queensland Government should determine which of its agencies should take responsibility for the management of all existing and new abandoned mine sites in Queensland.

Prior to approving a flood mitigation manual, the Queensland Government should be satisfied that its terms are expressed in a manner that allows a determination of compliance with it to be made by reference to objective standards.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management should prepare formal work procedures for the review of flood event reports created under emergency action plans and flood mitigation manuals.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management should prepare a list of relevant considerations to be taken into account in performing a risk assessment to decide which sites to inspect. Bureau of Meteorology forecasts should be one consideration.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management should conduct risk assessments in time for site inspections, and the implementation of solutions to problems identified at inspections, to take place before 1 November of each year.

The Queensland Government should, in consultation with the Department of Environment and Resource Management and Emergency Management Queensland, determine which agency is appropriate to review and approve emergency action plans for referable dams.

The Department of Environment and Resource Management should assist mine operators in their applications for amended environmental authorities to ensure, as far as possible, that each environmental authority contains a tailored version of Table 4 of the model conditions.

The Queensland Government should ensure that, when it considers options for the operational strategies to
be employed at Wivenhoe and Somerset dams, and North Pine Dam, it is presented with a wide range of

The Department of Environment and Resource Management and Emergency Management Queensland should ensure that each has copies of current emergency action plans for all dams in Queensland.

Unless the Department of Environment and Resource Management has decided not to permit discharges, it should assist each mine operator in its application for an environmental authority to ensure, as far as possible, that each authority includes provisions for discharges during times of heavy rain

The Queensland Government should refine the criteria which must be considered in assessment of applications for relaxation of environmental authority conditions, by transitional environmental program or otherwise, in response to flood.

The Queensland Government should ensure that all flood mitigation manuals include the requirement that those operating the dam during flood events hold current registrations as professional engineers.

The Queensland Government should endeavour to ensure that Queensland conditions are appropriately considered in the National Flood Risk Advisory Group’s review of best practice principles.

In the event that the review does not adequately account for Queensland conditions, the Queensland Government should produce a document that provides appropriate guidelines for floodplain management in the Queensland context.

The Queensland Government should prepare a procedural guide for officers deciding whether to grant a relaxation of environmental authority conditions, by transitional environmental program or otherwise, with guidance as to: • the meaning of each criterion • examples of the types of things that ma

The Queensland Government should determine whether existing guidelines are sufficient for councils to understand best practice in the performance of flood studies and the production of flood maps.

The Queensland Government should make public the procedural guide used by Department of Environment and Resource Management officers to decide whether to grant a transitional environmental program.