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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-17 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE: FLOOD DAMAGE RECTIFICATION IN VARIOUS NATIONAL PARKS

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (11:37): I move:

That the 272nd report of the Public Works Committee, entitled Flood Damage Rectification in Various National Parks, be noted.

On 7 and 8 November 2005 (and how could we forget) the Mount Lofty area of the Adelaide Hills and the Plains experienced a significant rainfall event—which we would like to see again—and areas under the ownership and management of the Department for Environment and Heritage suffered extensive damage. The areas damaged included the Cleland Conservation Park, Waterfall Gully, Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens, Adelaide Botanic Gardens, Belair National Park, Morialta Conservation Park, Black Hill Conservation Park, Deep Creek Conservation Park, Horsnell Gully and sections of the Heysen Trail. As a result of the volume and speed of the water during the flood event, significant erosion and movement of sediment occurred as a result of channel stripping and incisions along portions of the creeks.

The department responded immediately by undertaking an initial inspection of the damage and carried out emergency repair works or closures to ensure public safety. Since then, survey work has been undertaken of all the affected areas in order to produce detailed engineering designs for tender and construction of the repairs. The project consists of the replacement or repair of assets situated in the parks across the Adelaide Hills and Plains that were destroyed or damaged. The aim was to undertake repairs and rectification to match the original as closely as possible with due regard to environmental and heritage considerations. The engineering design of all elements is to current Australian Standards and codes of practice. No new works are being undertaken as part of the project.

Damage ranged from undermining of retaining walls and bridge supports, fords washed away, retaining walls collapsed, bridges washed downstream, creek beds and walls washed out to road edging and a loss of footpaths. The works included rectification in all the affected parks and gardens with the exception of Deep Creek. All design solutions for replacements or repairs were undertaken with careful consideration of the nature of the existing surrounding assets. Whilst detailed engineering solutions were necessary, finishes considered the surrounding environment, with the majority of surfaces, including retaining walls, bridge supports and fords being of a rock or stone finish. This is in keeping with the existing assets, many of which were built a number of years ago. The parks affected are extremely popular with the public and they experience high use by many different groups, including bushwalkers, casual walkers, school groups and families. The experiences of these users have been dramatically affected and the replacement or repair of the assets will now allow for the full use of the parks, and it will also reinstate emergency and ranger access to some remote areas.

The works were grouped together to achieve a consistent design approach and to achieve the best value for money solution; in particular, this applies to the bridges to be replaced and all the retaining walls to be rebuilt. However, this has meant that some smaller repairs have been delayed while the full works have been resolved. The full cost of the repairs is $4.754 million which will be reimbursed by SAICORP over a number of years. The operating costs associated with maintaining the assets rectified could be met from existing departmental resources. The anticipated commencement of construction is September 2007 with completion in mid-March 2008. One major risk in regard to this type of works is whether commencing construction in September (which hopefully has happened) will mitigate that risk. Pursuant to section 12C of the Parliamentary Committees Act 1991, the Public Works Committee reports to Parliament that it recommends the proposed public work.

Mr PENGILLY (Finniss) (11:41): I rise to support the member for Norwood and this report on flood damage in various national parks. It is important that this matter is proceeded with and completed sooner rather than later. My concern is really about the length of time it has taken to get to this point. It seems to me to be absolutely ludicrous that we are a couple of years down the track and we are only just discussing now how it can be repaired and making the finances available to do so. Quite correctly, this came about from an unusual rainfall event and we just cannot predict those and you cannot design, in most cases, the facilities to go around that sort of rain, so it was just unfortunate that it happened. However, what has happened has happened. The Public Works Committee has seen in its wisdom the right to move on this and fix the thing up. I would like to think that the national parks would move expeditiously to remediate and put back into good condition those areas that were damaged.

In fact, I am greatly appreciative of the efforts of the national parks over the past few weeks over its controlled burn-offs. I think they have done a marvellous job. They went in on one occasion on the weekend to burn 10 hectares but instead burnt 1,000 hectares; they burned far more than they originally planned for. However, the benefits cannot go unnoticed because, in effect, they have had a large controlled burn off in some of these national parks that are affected in this report, and other places, and they have made the area far more secure. I suppose that is an upshot of natural disasters taking over from a controlled burn off. In view of the fact that we do not have much time to spend on it this morning, I commend the report to the parliament. I am very happy to speak in favour of the member for Norwood's motion on this report of the Public Works Committee and thus I conclude my remarks.

Ms CICCARELLO (Norwood) (11:42): I thank the member for Finniss for his support and, in regard to his comments about having taken so long, we were assured that the reason for this was that the department needed to aggregate all the works in order for the tendering process to be much more efficient, and I think that has been carried out to the best of the department's ability. The work will now be done expeditiously. With that, I commend the report to the house.

Motion carried.

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