Resilient Kurilpa News—February 2024
Planning, planning, planning
It’s been 15 months since Resilient Kurilpa released the Template Flood Mitigation Plan for Kurilpa Apartments, during a public meeting at Queensland Ballet’s Thomas Dixon Building.
Since then, our small group of committed local residents have continued developing resources and advocating for actions from all tiers of Government to improve flood preparation and resilience in our suburbs.
We are motivated by the inevitability of future floods and impacts they will have on our densifying population from the TLPI.
Beyond Kurilpa, we see major flooding in North and South East Queensland. Severe flash flooding and prolonged power failure in the Gold Coast and Scenic Rim has caused an all-too-familiar devastation for many Queenslanders. Our hearts go out to all these communities, especially those still rebuilding from previous inundation.
With recent heavy rains in Brisbane increasing general anxiety levels, we hope this newsletter is timely.
Our Apartment Toolkit and Local Insights Blog are growing!
Many of us are at different stages in our journey to learning and planning for future floods. In particular, volunteer body corporates (many for the first time) are having to look for answers on complex issues as they develop flood mitigation strategies for their buildings and residents.
We continue to publish our communities’ insights and knowledge in our Apartment Toolkit and Local Insights Blog, so that we can collectively share the load of adapting to floods.
Have a topic you want us to deep dive into? Or do you have insights to share on a flood-related topic with the wider community? Please let us know!
Learn from Riverpoint Apartment’s cautionary tales
As more and more apartment dwellers get to know how their buildings respond to flood events, Adrian Sains and the Riverpoint Apartments Body Corporate have generously detailed their story and the steps they’re taking toward mitigating future flood impacts on their building.
“We have learnt a great deal about how floods impact our building and our residents, and hope our story supports other apartment dwellers and body corporates to safely prepare, respond and recover from future floods…”
Image: Adrian shows us flood mitigation works occurring at Riverpoint Apartments.
Things you should know: about body corporates & flood insurance
Why would your body corporate consider flood insurance?
What can your body corporate do if flood insurance is unaffordable or unavailable?
Why might your body corporate self-insure?
If you're on a body corporate and assessing your flood insurance options (or lack thereof), deep dive into our new ‘things you should know’ video series with Leanne Sturgess and Adrian Sains.
“When this happens again, we won’t have to deal with the same impacts. These are not just financial or inconvenient. They actually affect how people feel about the way they live in this place, in South Brisbane. You don’t want that anxiety hanging over you; you want to feel safe and secure in your own home…”
Local government candidate promises and policies on flood
With elections looming, what actions on flood have local government candidates promised in their campaigning?
Local government plays a key role in mitigating the impacts of floods on residents. They have various powers that can prevent exposure of our growing population to flood risks, ensure our infrastructure and community is prepared, and strengthen how we respond and recover from future floods.
We collected their key promises and policies on all things flood in this blog post.
Image: Ferry Street, February 2022, taken by Ben Kaufman.
Sweltering Cities has landed in town
Sweltering Cities has officially set up camp in Brisbane, kicking off with an event hosted at Griffith University ‘Brisbane, A Heat Safe City?’ on the 12 February.
The speakers highlighted that Brisbane has a lot of work to do to become a heat safe city. Four themes emerged from the event:
Better planning, design and construction measures to respond to extreme heat, including climate conscious design.
Nature based solutions including increasing green and blue infrastructure by reintroducing trees and water bodies into our built environments.
Lower emissions from transport by encouraging more cycling and less cars, as well as the transition to renewable energy.
Social impacts including understanding safe third places for the public and the impacts of heat on the homeless population of Brisbane.
Read a recap of the event here and their coverage in the ABC and the Brisbane City Times.
Lastly, Sweltering Cities is trying to reach 67 more Queenslanders to complete their Summer Survey by Thursday 7 March. Find it here.
New artwork by Duane Doyle beside the river
Brisbane City Council has funded a new mural on Riverside Drive in South Brisbane. Jiman man and well-known West End Community House (WECH), Art Gang member Duane Doyle designed the work, which he says tells the story of the river and flood.
During the 2022 flood, WECH became a flood recovery hub for Kurilpa residents, hosting government workers who could engage face-to-face with people needing assistance.
Duane said that during the flood he had to relocate to Kangaroo Point, living with a beautiful family who looked after him.
“Kylie Deen would pick us up every morning to go and help out the West End Community House… WECH had hubs with Red Cross and Salvation Army from New South Wales mob who came and set up their hubs. The whole six weeks, WECH was full of people looking for help. I felt a little bit sorry for the workers. I thought to myself, how do I help the workers? Throwing out the rubbish and freeing up their time by cleaning away the obstacles that were stopping them from helping genuine human beings that needed support and help at that time.”
Image: Artist Duane Doyle paints his mural on Riverside Drive, beside the river.
We want to hear from you
Join the Resilient Kurilpa Apartment Network on Facebook to share questions (like the one below) about flood mitigation and be first to hear our updates.
