Three flood levees in western Sydney promised by Premier Chris Minns before the last election are yet to be built, as the NSW government sits on a report on how to mitigate flood risk in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Basin.
The then-opposition leader launched the $225 million Western Sydney Floods Resilience Plan as Labor policy in 2022 after devastating floods hit the region for the second year in a row. The package included $24 million for building new levees at Peachtree Creek, McGraths Hill and Pitt Town.
The promise, which was heavily promoted across social media by Labor MPs, included a requirement that the money would be spent within two years if the party won the 2023 election, rather than spending an extended period in planning. “We need urgent action and solutions that can be delivered right now, not in another decade,” Minns said in a statement at the time.
Nearly four years on, construction of the levees is yet to start. The NSW Reconstruction Authority completed the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Disaster Adaptation Plan 12 months ago, which considers flood mitigation options such as levees, but this report has been stuck in reviews and is yet to be released by the government.
The report is expected to cover flood planning, based on the guidelines for disaster adaptation plans , which could have implications for the government’s focus on housing delivery in north-western Sydney. The government did not respond to questions about the reason for the delay.
Alex McAlpin, resilience policy specialist at Committee for Sydney, said the disaster adaptation plan should be released sooner rather than later since the government’s own research showed if the region experienced a significant event like the 1867 flood , more than 230,000 people would need to be evacuated.
“For too long communities in western Sydney have been left high and dry, or more accurately, low and wet when it comes to flood resilience,” McAlpin said.
“The Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment is NSW’s biggest floodplain risk and we haven’t done anywhere near enough to address it, leaving people in areas like Penrith, Richmond and Blacktown completely exposed.”
Resilient Sydney, a collaboration between Sydney councils, also called for the urgent release of the disaster plan.
The February-March 2022 floods in NSW and Queensland were Australia’s most costly insured event ever, with $6.4 billion in insured losses, Insurance Council of Australia figures show.
The flood risk was increasing because climate change caused more frequent and intense rainstorms, while development was increasing urban run-off from hard surfaces and driving population growth, McAlpin said.
“The lack of delivery on these levees is a problem waiting to happen – it’s indicative of a broader issue that governments of all levels spend a tiny fraction of disaster funding on prevention – even though we know it’s cheaper and more effective than waiting until the waters are rising,” McAlpin said. “We know what’s coming, why aren’t we preparing for it?”
The levees would not protect against the biggest floods, but would reduce risk for more common events. At the time the Insurance Council hailed the 2022 announcement as a “welcome first step”.
The industry body has lobbied for state and federal governments to spend $30.15 billion over 10 years to establish a Flood Defence Fund for mitigation works, particularly levees, dams and detention basins across the 24 highest-risk flood catchments in the country, including the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley.
The Pitt Town levee, estimated to cost $9.6 million, was intended to help protect residential areas within the town by blocking flows that enter through low-lying areas to the south and east, the Labor policy said.
The McGraths Hill levee, at an estimated cost of $8 million, was to protect residential properties against most common floods, capping out at floods with a 1-in-50 chance of occurring in any given year, by blocking flows that enter the suburb through low-lying areas to the south and east.
The Peachtree Creek levee, costing an estimated $1.3 million, was designed to protect properties between the Nepean River and Penrith CBD from backwater flooding with an earthen levee, a retaining wall and floodgates. It would also include floodgates over Boundary Creek, Old Ferry Road levee, and Tennis Court levee.
Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils chief executive Francine Binns said the levees were still being considered, but the relevant councils were waiting for the release of the adaptation plan.
Minns referred questions to Minister for Recovery Janelle Saffin, who said the government commissioned the disaster adaptation plan to identify ways to reduce or adapt to risk, and all flood mitigation options were considered.
“We are committed to taking a co-ordinated, evidence-based approach to protect local communities,” Saffin said.
The election promise also included $200 million for new roads and bridges to enable evacuation in the event of a flood, substantially matching promises made by the then Coalition government.
The final $1 million was to buy trailer-mounted cell towers to boost communications capacity in an emergency, which has been done.
Saffin said the $200 million promise for road projects to boost flood resilience had been met. This included upgrading regional flood evacuation routes such as the Pitt Town Bypass and expansions along Garfield Road East and Richmond Road.
The second stage of the New Richmond Bridge project, which involves a bridge over the Hawkesbury at North Richmond and a bypass of Richmond town centre, secured $658 million in joint state and federal funding earlier this month.
Associate Professor Ian Wright, a water expert at Western Sydney University, said there were “infamously bad” traffic jams every single day on the Hawkesbury floodplain.
The roadworks felt like a “very small proportion of a massive job” especially given the upgrades were needed for flood resilience even before the massive increase in urban development in areas such as North Richmond and Marsden Park North.
“I understand from the emergency services that we only just got away with some of those last big floods earlier this decade,” Wright said. “It’s one of Australia’s greatest potential future civil disasters, a massive flood in the Hawkesbury.”
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