Regarding the flood height in Boggabri.
What a great idea to check the height of all houses in Boggabri.
I hope that Council has decided which flood height to base level to work from.
Boggabri has seen several floods since the 1955 flood and none have reached the town.
The 1955 flood was before Keepit Dam was completed.
The main wall was half completed and held a lot of water.
When the dam wall broke it allowed a large peak to mix with other peaks to mix at Gunnedah and cause the biggest flood seen at Boggabri.
There are several dams on the Namoi to control the peaks to pass individually down the river eg Cox’s Creek water and Keepit Dam release will not clash.
Storm rain can cause the gutters in town to rise very quickly and overflow the gutters where pipes under the road are too small.
But this water only builds to the middle of the street.
This was classed as flood water by the Urban Area Committee so noted by the Council as ‘flood prone’.
The reason I say it is good to have a review of flood heights is that the Shire has recorded ‘flood prone’ on most of the blocks throughout town.
This causes problems to builders of new houses and insurance companies when a client wishes to insure their house.
They check the deeds that the Shire has recorded ‘flood prone’, the insurance price could double.
I found this out when I moved from farm to town.
At present the flood gauge is near the Iron Bridge although this is a very accurate river gauge it can be a very different height at Boggabri.
A flood height peg close to town would be a great benefit to builders and new arrivals to know where floods will go.
When in the SES only two houses needed checking for flood height but neither got damaged.
RL Rees, Boggabri
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