Better Flood Protection Needed

Supermarket shelves are bare, tourists have been unable to make domestic and connecting international flights, the hospital has been inaccessible by land and hundreds of motorists have been stranded between flood waters.

While this amount of rainfall will undoubtedly set new local records, the annual wet season in the Whitsundays is nothing new to our region.

Each year we can expect a deluge of torrential rain to fall between January and March, but while other regions may have flood mitigation infrastructure in place, the Whitsunday’s roads remain vulnerable to flooding.

Federal Member for Dawson, Andrew Willcox said that this is despite studies and funding already allocated to address the frequent flooding issues in key areas like Hamilton Plains.

“I am not happy at all that nothing has been done to prevent Hamilton Plains from flooding,” he said.

“When I was mayor, I fought for funding for this and with the previous Member for Dawson George Christiansen, we got the money, had it in the Federal Budget and lots of studies have been done.

“This project really needs to get moving!”

Mr Willcox said that it is occasions like this that remind us all how vulnerable we are.

“Now we find ourselves in a situation where a major area has been cut-off – the Bruce Highway is a major highway for produce to go south and all the suppliers to come up north,” he said.

In regards to Hamilton Plains, Mr Willcox says he is extremely frustrated that nothing has been done to mitigate the floods during an extreme weather event.

“The money has already been provided!” he said.

“We just need the state government to get on and do the work – this is something that I will be pushing hard for – it’s simply not good enough.”

This week, the highway south of Proserpine near Goorganga Plains and Lethebrook was closed for five days after extensive flooding caused a B-Double truck to get stranded in flood waters.

Regional roads through Mount Julian and Strathdickie were closed from Monday until Tuesday afternoon.

Further north, roads opened from Proserpine to Bowen on Tuesday afternoon, along with access through to Townsville.

At the time of going to print on Wednesday afternoon, the Bruce Highway from Proserpine to Mackay was still closed along with the only access road to Whitsunday Coast Airport.

Whitsunday Regional Council Mayor Julie Hall said that she will ensure infrastructure is repaired as soon as possible.

“We’ve contacted the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, who also take part in our local disaster management group meetings, and they’re aware of the impacts to the infrastructure in our region,” she said.

“We’ll be seeking their assistance and I look forward to working with them during our region’s recovery.”

‍

Hamilton Plains has funding allocated for flood mitigation but nothing has been done

‍