Sid McKeown knows the devastation Mother Nature can dish out.
After his riverfront home was one of 4,000 houses inundated in the Bundaberg region a decade ago, he’s been fighting for better flood protection for the Queensland city he calls home.
Now, a $175 million levee has been promised to save properties and lives in the future.
There’s just one problem, early plans show the levee going right through Mr McKeown’s street.
“We’re in the river,” he said.
“It means a total devaluation.”
The 1.7-kilometre concrete levee will be built on the southern side of Bundaberg’s Burnett River, protecting about 600 properties in the east, south and CBD suburbs.
But it stops short of protecting all residents, including Bundaberg North, where thousands of homes went under in 2013s 9.5-metre flood.
North Bundaberg home owner John Lee describes the levee as a “white elephant”.
In 2013, the water came up almost to his shoulders and gutted his house.
“It was like a movie set, seeing cars upside down, piled on top of each other,” he said.
“I wouldn’t like to see my worst enemy go through that.”
He believes there are better uses for the state and federal money.
“A third bridge, which would relieve a lot of traffic congestion, and also become a bridge for evacuation,” he said.
Wrong side of the wall
Trawler operator Scott Hodgetts “lost my house and everything else” in East Bundaberg in 2013.
For him, the levee will do nothing for his home or business.
“We’re on the wrong side of the wall,” Mr Hodgetts said.
“A handful of businesses around town will like it and the rest of Bundy who don’t like it get thrown underneath the bus.”
Mr Hodgetts said he expected the value of his property to drop significantly.
“It’s a long road, and we’ll be here until the end because we don’t have any options,” he said.
The levee project is still in the design and consultation phase, but property resumptions have not been ruled out.
Mr McKeown, who is a member of the Bundaberg Flood Protection Group (BFPG), fears his could be sacrificed.
“We’re at a loss as to why they want to pursue this at any cost, with very little benefit,” he said.
“We believe this wall will actually worsen the situation for those in North Bundaberg and we haven’t been convinced otherwise.”
The state member for Bundaberg Tom Smith acknowledged the levee would not serve residents in the city’s north, but refuted claims it would exacerbate the situation.
“We know this [levee] only protects an element of the Bundaberg community,” he said.
“You cannot stop flooding in [the] north, but we can do everything we can do to explore alternatives and possible projects into the future around evacuation.”
River restoration proposal
Fellow member of the BFPG, Wallie Cochrane, has been studying early maps of the Burnett River to see its natural flow and function.
He said it was vital to look at the past to solve the problem.
“The way it was in the 1870s before the 38 or so artificial crossings of the river were made,” he said.
“That tended to baffle the water and slow it down, and so you get accumulation of sand, silt and sediment.”
He said the group had identified areas for restoration work along the Burnett River.
“The river used to have 1,500 to 1,600 metres of flood exhaust capacity,” Mr Cochrane said.
“We think largely that can be restored, maybe not to the same extent, but in a way that mitigates the effect of the clogging of the river.”
But Mr Smith the flood protection group were not engineers or hydrologists.
“They want to try to find what they believe is the best solution,” he said.
“But their plans have been proven not to have a positive impact in terms of flood mitigation in Bundaberg.”
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