Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 - 1933), Tuesday 10 February 1931, page 13


TWO FLOODS.

Engineer's Report.

COUNCIL DEBATE.

Mr. W. E. Bush (engineer for Water Supply and Sewerage) furnished the Brisbane City Council yesterday with a detailed report of the damage ef-fected to the council's undertakings by the recent flood.

According to Mr. Bush there were two floods-one caused by the local rainfall, and the other by the fresh in the Brisbane River. The council's works had sustained more damage by the local flood than the river flood. In the local flood 18.40 inches or rain was recorded at Enoggera in 48 hours.

"It should be made quite clear," stated Mr. Bush in the report, "that the flooding of Enoggera and Break-fast Creeks was not in any way in-creased by the existence of the Enog-gera reservoir, but actually diminished, and the usual warning was given to tho police when water commenced to flow over the bywash."

The report further stated that when the rain began, Enoggera reservoir had lost 145 million gallons of water, and not only did this have to be made up before there was any overflow from the Enoggera catchment into the stream, but subsequently, as the water rose over the bywash, every foot would give at least 80,000 gallons ad-ditional storage, and the Enoggera reservoir actually stored from the time the rain commenced 450 million gallons of the flood rams. It was true that this quantity gradually passed over the bywash, but it served to diminish to some degree the intensity of the flood.

UNFOUNDED REPORT.

The Lord Mayor (Alderman W. A. Jolly, C.M.G.) said a rumour had been circulated that the intensity of the flooding of the Swan Hill district was due to the fact that the council had opened the flood gates of the Enoggera reservoir. A man he met on a tramcar had abused him for doing this. He had explained to him that the Enog-gera reservoir had no flood gates at

all.

Alderman O. W. Campbell said the same rumour had been circulated in his own ward. It was remarkable that at low water on Thursday morning the water in Breakfast Creek was four feet higher than in the Brisbane River. He had never seen such a rush of water down Enoggera Creek in the whole of his life. He considered the council should hold a thorough investigation, with a view to discovering means to prevent a similar flooding of residential areas on future occasions. If the Enoggera reservoir had been carried away by the rush of water hundreds of houses would have been swept away, and there would probably have been great loss of life.

Alderman Jolly: We have no power to prevent people building dwellings on flooded areas. We certainly should possess that power.

Alderman T. Prentice said that the council should approach the Govern-ment in order to obtain loan money to defray the cost of repairs, which would amount to about £50,000,

Alderman E. Lanham said that the Kedron Brook bridge having been dam-aged to tho extent of being unusable, a temporary crossing should be pro-

vided at once.

Alderman Jolly: Instructions for that have been given already.

Alderman W. R. Warmington said that the outskirts of Ithaca were isolated owing to tho bridge being

damaged.

NO DELAY.

Alderman Jolly: There will be no delay in repairing the damage caused by the floods. I have been out to all these bridges with the city engineer, and I have given instructions that communication is to be provided at once. Some of these bridges have sub-sided because of the way in which they were originally erected. We must give serious consideration to the matter before we start to build new bridges.

Alderman Campbell attributed the intensity of the flood in the Swan Hill area to tho embankment built by the Railway Department at the point where the railway crossed Breakfast

Creek.

Alderman Jolly: That matter is worth looking into.