Wilks Park to remain closed with another La Niña summer predicted

Wagga Wagga City Council has confirmed that Wilks Park will remain closed due to uncertainty around flooding with further rainfall predicted over the coming months.

A statement released this week stated that “the timeframe for this closure is currently unknown,” and that the “NSW Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) will continue to proactively engage and work with people who are currently at Wilks Park as well as others who relocated to the showgrounds following the recent flooding.

“As the land manager of the park, Wagga Wagga City Council will continue to monitor the river height with emergency agencies.”

The primitive camping ground at Wilks Park has been a sore point for council in recent months after they issued a move-on notice to the small homeless community that had gathered there.

Council had sought to enforce the camping ground’s conditions of entry which limit acces to a maximum stay of 72 hours and only to “self-contained vehicles” that can be quickly relocated.

The public backlash saw them back away from the ultimatum, however, the danger of rising waters had been chief among their concerns.

In a statement in June, director of community Janice Summerhayes said the council was responsible for managing safety risks at Wilks Park, including flooding.

“In an event of a flood, occupants of Wilks Park need to be able to pack up and evacuate quickly and safely,” she said.

This proved to be the case when the river rose and on Sunday, 7 August, almost all residents of the park were forced to flee, many leaving behind tents, furniture and possessions.

Council’s general manager David Thompson confirmed that they would not be moving on any of the rough sleepers but would keep the entrances sealed.

“The evacuation order that applied to the park has been lifted, and we’ve made a decision that we won’t be removing the pieces of the levee that we installed to protect that area from the flood because the weather predictions over the coming few months are such that it may be that we get another flood event,” he said.

While some of the campers chose to wait out the flood and a small number of others have now returned, many relocated to the showgrounds where they remain well above the high watermark.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has warned that there is a 70 per cent chance of another La Niña weather pattern in the coming months.

The BoM raised the El Niño Southern Oscillation Index scale to “alert” on Tuesday predicting a rare third consecutive La Niña summer.

Continued rainfall is likely to lead to another round of flooding rains with sodden catchments, full rivers and dams at capacity.

Currently, the Murrumbidgee River level at Wagga is falling slowly and remains well below the minor flooding level at 6.87 metres.

The flood peak is now downstream at Narrandera where river levels peaked on Tuesday afternoon with moderate flooding.

There is also some minor flooding at Darlington Point with floodwaters expected to peak around Friday.

Carrathool and Hay are on notice for minor to moderate flooding from mid-next week.

With another cold front moving in, moderate rainfall is expected later this week with 5 to 8 mm forecast for Friday.

This may cause the river level to rise again and residents in the upper parts of the Murrumbidgee catchment are advised to keep an eye out for renewed warnings on the BoM site.