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