The Hunter Valley has a history of floods, the most notable being the February 1955 event which devastated the City of Maitland and floodplains of the Hunter. It led to construction of the Hunter Valley Flood Mitigation Scheme – 170 kilometres of levees and flood control structures designed to prevent a recurrence of the 1955 disaster.  The scheme is managed as a partnership between the Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority and the Department of Environment and Climate Change, with funding also provided by the Australian and local governments.

The scheme was tested during the 2007 Queen’s Birthday long weekend, when with little warning, a significant flood equating approximately to a 5% AEP event threatened to again inundate the City of Maitland.

The works have been continually maintained and refurbished in preparation for flood events, however the Maitland scheme had not operated since 1971. Few people had first hand experience of that flood, and public understanding of how the flood control structures function was not high.

Whilst the initial prediction was for an event similar to the 1971 flood – also approximately equating to a 5% AEP flood, the often quoted adage “No two floods are the same” applied this weekend.

This paper reports of the origins of the 2007 flood, the accuracy of flood predictions, activation of the State Emergency Service (SES) Maitland City Local Flood Plan – involving evacuation of over 4,000 people, and operation of the flood mitigation scheme.

The paper will discuss what worked, what can be improved, and lessons which can be applied in other flood prone towns.

Download the research paper to find out more.