Culburra Beach and Orient Point Community forum protest floods.

South Coast Register

Culburra Beach and Orient Point Community Forum (CCB) call for action to prevent floods. Video by CCB Water Management Committee and Krystyna George

Transcript

00:00Deputy Mayor and Councillors, my name is Adrian Ludman. I'm here to speak on behalf of the

00:06residents and ratepayers of Colborough Beach. On Tuesday, April 22, residents woke up to a familiar,

00:12distressing sight. For some, it was traumatic. One resident is still too traumatised to speak about

00:19it. Colborough Beach was once again severely flooded. The CCB reached out to residents to

00:26find out the extent of the damage and offer help. Adjacent to Greenbank Grove drain, a woman described

00:33her neighbour, a pensioner, wading through his hallway knee-deep in water. He was left homeless.

00:40At Lake Circuit, a block of units flooded for the second year in a row. Residents have spent tens

00:46of thousands of dollars to try and protect their homes from stormwater drain flooding caused by

00:52block council drains and inadequate pipes. At the Addison Road footbridge, a large open drain that

00:58flows to Curleys Bay was blocked by objects clearly visible on both sides of the bridge,

01:03causing flooding to the neighbouring properties at high tide. Further along Addison Road, water pouring

01:09from a vagrant block at the rear of the properties created an ankle-deep river that destroyed both

01:15sides of the road, creating a hazard for cars. A family of six renting a house on Prince Edward

01:21Avenue experienced raw sewerage floating through the first floor of their rented home. They had to

01:27take two trailer loads of their flood-damaged household and baby furniture to the tip. This

01:32is their second experience of being flooded in Colborough, and their children are traumatised.

01:36When it starts to rain, they are terrified of what might happen to their home. The owner of this

01:41house has been frustrated by repeated flooding, insurance claims and a lack of response by council.

01:47I know because I live next door. We have the same issue. My wife and I woke up to find sewerage

01:53spilling in through an interior floor drain due to stormwater 300 millimetres deep in our garden,

01:59which causes the sewerage yard trap to backflow into our home. In previous Colborough floods,

02:05I have lost two cars. It is clear to the naked eye that infrastructure failure at the triangle

02:10is causing drains to overflow all the way down Prince Edward Avenue to other hot spots, including

02:16the Strand, Fern Way and Park Row. Another hot spot is the East Crescent Drain. This is no longer

02:22visible due to overgrown vegetation and has a fence around it preventing access. On Sunday, April 27th,

02:29the CCB held a meeting to address our flooding situation. 60 residents attended and shared stories

02:35going back decades. The residents know from lived experience that this flooding is not a one-off event.

02:42Shoalhaven has been officially declared a natural disaster area for the last three years in 2022,

02:4823 and 24. Colborough Beach copped it hard every time, but this year's flood was far worse.

02:55This frequent flooding is not news to Shoalhaven Council. Last year, in May 2024,

03:01councillors Patricia White and Paul L. acknowledged the severity of our drainage problem and put forward a

03:06motion to address it. I quote, that Council acknowledges the significant community concern

03:12about the condition of Council's open stormwater drainage infrastructure in Colborough Beach

03:17and surrounding areas due to frequent flooding events. It notes that a number of open stormwater

03:23drains have significant levels of vegetation growing within them. The motion to carry out maintenance

03:29works and further investigations was passed unanimously by Council. And yet, a year later,

03:35Colborough was flooded again. We're not here to argue with engineers about the 2m high reeds

03:42filling our open drains. We trust the experts to come up with a solution. We have ample photographic

03:48evidence and as ratepayers, we are looking for long-term solutions. We urge all councillors sitting in

03:55this room to put yourselves in our shoes. If your house was repeatedly flooded. If you suddenly found

04:03yourself homeless. If you had to buy a new car because of flood damage. If your children were

04:09traumatised. If your insurance skyrocketed or was denied because your property was located next to an

04:16unmaintained drain. If you'd spent tens of thousands of dollars on stormwater solutions to no avail.

04:23How would you feel? What would you ask your council to do for you? With increasing rainfall and a

04:29growing population putting more pressure on our infrastructure, once a year maintenance is not

04:34enough. Higher levels of torrential rainfall are occurring earlier in the year and more frequently.

04:42We are asking council to clear our drains four times a year. We need engineers to carry out a thorough

04:48investigation. We need to know when this clearing is planned and reassurance that the work has been

04:53properly done. And we need a long-term solution. We are asking that you seek co-funding through an

05:00agency like NEMA to provide infrastructure that will make our town more resilient to this type of

05:05natural disaster. We urge you to support the two motions being put forward tonight and start the

05:11process of fixing our disastrous drainage situation. Thank you for your time.

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