An update to Brisbane City Council’s flood risk map will add over 10,000 properties, and more than 2,000 others will be upgraded to increased flood risk categories, with insurers warned not to try to cash in on this change and hike up premiums unfairly. The new mapping will impact 17,246 properties in total, with the added properties, the upgraded ones and 400 properties being removed.
The changes will affect residents in Albion, Windsor, Wilston, Ashgrove, Newmarket, The Gap, Newstead, Enoggera, Bowen Hills, Herston, Kelvin Grove, Bowen Hills, Red Hill, Bardon and Fortitude Valley, and came into effect on September 19, with letters being sent to all affected residents.
The Brisbane City Council’s decision stems from flood studies done for the Breakfast Creek, Jindalee and Lota Creek catchments last year — the changes only apply to creek and waterway flooding, not Brisbane River or overland flow flooding — and Council has since updated its flood risk map.
This update, announced in August, added thousands of properties to flood zones in the Jindalee and Breakfast Creek. Albion suffered some of the biggest changes, with a large area near Breakfast Creek now included in the five-level risk mapping system.
Parts of Ashgrove, Wilston and Windsor have also bee added to risk zones and, in Jindalee, a large area from Oldfield Rd North to Yallambee/Sinnamon Roads has now been marked as affected.
The Brisbane City Council highlighted the importance of flood preparedness, which could make a big difference when it comes to safety and property protection. With more severe weather events happening more regularly than before — and especially since the 1974 floods caused by Tropical Cyclone Wanda — having up-to-date information has never been more important, and 29 flood studies have been conducted in the past 10 years.