New flood warning stations for Six Mile Creek

Council has awarded a $200,000 contract to build five new flood warning stations in the Noosa hinterland.

The new stations will provide real-time creek height and rainfall data from sites in Cooroy, Lake Macdonald, Pomona and Kin Kin.

Disaster Management Coordinator Alan ‘Fox’ Rogers said the new stations would be invaluable disaster management tools.

“Council’s hydrologist will be able to translate the data that the flood gauges provide into useful information to help us predict when flooding will close roads, and for how long,” he said.

Council’s Six Mile Creek Flood Study provided a case for more monitoring stations within the catchment to fill gaps in data reporting.

“Having real-time flood information in a disaster event, particularly at places like Pomona and Kin Kin where we have had no previous information, will be invaluable for both emergency services and local residents who will be able to read the information from the BoM website,” Mr Rogers said.

Council’s Local Disaster Management Group selected the sites in consultation with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and Main Roads.

The stations are solar-powered and built to withstand high winds, heavy rain, floodwater and earthquakes. They use radio signals to transmit creek height and rainfall information.

The stations will notify BoM of changes in the creek height.

Contractor ALS Hydrographics will begin building the flood monitoring stations in July.

Council anticipates that they will be up and running in around 11 weeks.

The monitoring stations aren’t the first of their kind in use in Noosa Shire, but the majority of existing stations measure only rainfall.

The Six Mile Creek Flood Monitoring System is a joint initiative of Council and the Queensland Government, which is providing $165,600 towards the project.

19 June 2017