Flooding forces new approach to housing developments

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Despite devastating floods over the years, housing developments continue to be approved for notoriously flood plains. It is a nation-wide problem with prime real estate too valuable not to build on.

Transcript

00:00Mark Stockwell is one of the few developers willing to mention the F-word in public.

00:08We've got to, in Brisbane, realise that flood is part of our way of life, but we've got

00:13to be prepared for it.

00:14It went to about 6.8 metres, which means it's another 1.8 metres above my head.

00:21Building above ground car parks, moving utilities to rooftops and flood barriers like this all

00:27help.

00:28Arms, gates, bunds, in some situations maybe pumps.

00:34With a national housing crisis, governments are using any land they can.

00:39But that might mean those occupants have to shelter in place in times of a flood.

00:44That's certainly the case in Sydney's west, where this 34-storey build-to-rent block is

00:49going up in Parramatta.

00:51There was a comment that the design allowed for a tolerable risk to life.

00:57Dammed by the council and the SES, it was called in by the NSW government.

01:03Obviously the family of someone that died in flood waters would not accept that as a

01:07tolerable risk.

01:09On Queensland's Gold Coast, this low-lying land is to become Lakesview, with 2,700 homes

01:16to be built up on pads.

01:18It too was given the green light by a state government, despite council and insurer concerns.

01:24The Insurance Council has long advocated for governments at all levels to stop development

01:29on flood plains.

01:31We put communities and businesses at risk when we build the wrong things in the wrong

01:35places.

01:37And back in Brisbane, three skyscrapers are proposed for this old factory site, just a

01:42kilometre from the CBD.

01:45Developers arguing, habitable areas are above climate change predictions for floods, even

01:5075 years from now.

01:54Sometimes common sense prevails.

01:56This old cow site on the Glitter Strip, once approved for 1,500 homes, was left idle after

02:02developers were told they'd have to have canned food and life rafts on site for when it went

02:07under, which was often.

02:10There's no easy answer to this.

02:11We need houses, but we also want to keep people safe.

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