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.
Category
đŸ“º
TVTranscript
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.