MrSW120

Hi,
Looking at moving to the Brisbane area. Concerned about flooding given this year's weather. Can anyone tell me if there are any pleasant suburbs that don't flood or are at least less prone to flooding?

Pollyana

Brisbane City Council has some pretty good flood mapping, have a look at
https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/comm...-awareness-map

abner

Errm, yes there are. There are also pleasant suburbs to live in Brisbane, which are partially flood-prone, but where certain sections are elevated enough to avoid any conceivable riverine flooding event.

E.g., just to pick one, Paddington, a blue-chip inner-city suburb on the whole, has sections which are essentially flood-proof, and others which are flood-prone in "1-in-a-century" floods (though there seem to have been a lot of those lately), and still others that will flood relatively frequently.

abner

One other flood-related factor to consider in relation any Brisbane property is the potential for flash-flooding, as opposed to riverine flooding. Even if a property is well-elevated in relation to council flood maps, it can nonetheless be inundated, albeit temporarily, by water flowing from higher ground during particularly severe downpours.

Some years ago, we bought a townhouse in a small, newly-redeveloped enclave, mid-way up a large hill in a nice south-side Brisbane suburb, i.e. well-elevated beyond any potential for riverine flooding. The overall site plan included a bridge over a dry gully, and other designated drainage channels than passed by several of the individual units. At first, while we still lived there, it all worked quite well: even during severe rainstorms, the gully had a lot of fast-moving water in it for the duration of the storm, but never overflowed. And, the local council enforced restrictions regarding the individual-unit drainage channels, e.g. one of our neighbours was forced to removed an unapproved pergola and patio that he'd built over a channel.

Fast-forward to several years after we sold out and moved on, and we were surprised to see our old unit sell again for less than we sold it for, amid a generally strong market for the suburb. My daughter revisited the property out of curiosity about the decline in value, and found the gully absolutely choked with vegetation. I'll bet that most of those units flood now, briefly, with every intense rainfall.

Pollyana

This year's flooding involved a lot more riverine flooding than 2011, simply because of the amount of torrential heavy rainfall, far more than the creeks and gullies could deal with. I would anticipate some updates to the flood mapping over the next few months to take into account existing flood levels affected by new developments, along with information on riverine/creek flooding.

abner

While what you describe is welcome news generally, I'm not sure what good that it will do in the type of case I was highlighting.

At a well-educated guess, based on close early involvement with the Body Corporate at the site, there was a continued decline in owner-occupier interest/involvement in the development, followed by a lack of funding for ongoing critical site maintenance, as the complex transitioned to (primarily overseas) investor-owned, and rental-tenanted.

So the investor-owners 'flapped' themselves (to borrow a euphemism from another popular Australian site). They went cheap enough on site-related maintenance, such that the market values of their assets have actually gone backwards.

Glad we got out early.

Pollyana

Some of the apartment blocks here are built in such awful places, with dreadful maintenance - its not just flooding that gets them, its also leaks in roofs etc so that in a storm water pours in.
I had a friends who had a great apartment near the Royal Brisbane Hospital, fortunately he was only renting, as we soon realised that every time there was any flooding the car park went under water, and in floods like 2011 and this year the whole place had to be evacuated due to flooding on the lower levels, compromised electrics etc.

Amazulu

As Sun Tzu once said - always buy a house on a hill

Pollyana

SO true! If my place floods then virtually the whole of Brisbane will have gone under

sssstew

Couldnt agree more with this recommendation. We use it when ever buying a house here and its been great.

JAYMAC

Hi,

We have purchased property a few times around Ipswich/Gold Coast area and I always check all the flood mapping information when looking at a potential purchase. I would never consider anything which is in a street close to an area that is know to have flooded in the past, as we have had a run of bad flooding over the last year or so. Another tip I would give is to log on to a major insurance company and obtain a quote for building insurance for any house that you are interested in before going any further. The higher the premium, the more chance of the possibility that the property is in a flood risk zone.

Julia

Lawrenceb

As above, so this year was bad, we are on a slope about half way, our 10mx4mx2m pool got lifted out of the ground by 40cm, lucky it is covered under insurance, so the wait to be replaced. But yes some places are worse and by a river etc

Moses2013

Not Brisbane, but this seems to be reality for many now. https://www.lmfm.ie/news/news-extra/...oz/i/gogarty1/
Were they just naive to buy in the area in the first place and then not have insurance? One thing can be said and they are very lucky to have a large Irish family.

Pollyana

Huge (and increasing) numbers of people here have no insurance, both in cyclone-prone areas, and in flood-prone. The insurance companies have hiked up their prices horrifically over the last few years in any disaster-prone suburb, and many people simply cannot afford the premiums now. I think a lot have gambled on their property always being above the flood line, but now suddenly they are getting swamped - and in many areas, not just once but repeatedly. In many areas affected by this years floods - in NSW and QLD - properties were flooded that had never been anywhere near a flood before.
The family in the article were apparently quoted $1500 a month (thats roughly £700). Thats a huge chuck of anyone's wages.

Moses2013

You are completely right and $1500 a month is basically another mortgage. Looking at this https://www.researchgate.net/figure/...tbl1_287513475, even 1978, 1988 and 1990 looked bad so maybe not a once in every hundred years event as they say in article: "The area was known to flood but in a once in every hundred years event. It just shows that one should always ask for insurance quotes before buying any property.