The Riverside Adventure Park appears to have weathered the flood well. Photo: Chris Roe.
The Riverside Adventure Park appears to have emerged unscathed from the floodwaters as the Murrumbidgee continues to fall, dropping below 8 metres on Thursday morning.
While the carparks remain flooded and there’s no sign of Wagga Beach, much of the newly opened Riverside precinct is back above water.
In the park itself, a trip down the slide will leave you muddy and end with a splash, but most of the play equipment is in the clear and, after a quick clean-up, will be looking as good as new.
Council’s strategic asset planner Ben Creighton said the flood-prone location was taken into consideration in the design and engineering.
“Any asset that essentially would be impacted by the water has been removed off site and the remainder of the assets will essentially stand there within the water and once they dry out, they’ll be fine,” he said.
“Ultimately it will take us a couple of days to clean up and then it’d be fine to go.”
The river remains within the minor flooding range above 7.3 metres and is falling, however, the predicted low-pressure system has arrived.
Morgan Pumpa from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warned that rain is expected to continue over the next week.
“A cold front associated with that low-pressure system is moving over NSW today and into tomorrow from the west to the east, and that’s bringing the chance of showers,” she said.
Friday is likely to be the wettest with the chance of thunderstorms overnight into Saturday and 8 to 15mm of rain expected.
“The rainfall isn’t expected to be enough to bring out a severe weather warning,” Ms Pumpa said.
“But the thunderstorms may increase the rainfall, so it’s really important for people to keep an eye on the forecast as well as making sure that they take care near waterways.”
Satelite image from Thursday. Photo: BoM.
The other major consideration is the management of dam levels and the threat of further releases into the river systems.
Wagga MP Dr Joe McGirr has demanded better management from WaterNSW in the wake of the “surprising news on Friday” that the region was facing a flood.
Speaking in parliament this week, Dr McGirr called for the lowering of the dam levels for Burrinjuck and Blowering dams, which had been set at 90 to 95 per cent.
“In a year of rain and more rain, many people in my electorate are asking – did we have to have this flooding event and what is going to happen for the rest of the year?” he said.
“I’m calling on the government to make sure that the relevant dam levels are set at 80 per cent for the rest of the year while it is likely that we are going to face significant rainfall.”
WaterNSW says the “situation remains dynamic”. Photo: WaterNSW.
A spokesperson for WaterNSW said rainfall and inflows last week “far exceeded forecasts” and suggested that they were able to greatly reduce the impacts downstream by lowering the Burrinjuck storage to below 90 per cent and Blowering to 92 per cent.
“These actions effectively cut the flood peak at Gundagai in half,” the spokesperson said.
“To have captured the entire flood event, the storage at Burrinjuck would have had to be at approximately 65 per cent.
“It is worth noting this action alone wouldn’t have prevented flooding, with tributaries downstream of the dams contributing the bulk of the water to the flood peak.”
Looking ahead, WaterNSW said the “situation remains dynamic” and that their “decision-making is shaped by real-time data from the field, together with daily forecasting from the BoM.”
They will continue to “consult with communities and key stakeholders” and confirmed that the Murrumbidgee Airspace Panel would meet next week to consider storage targets for the coming months.
Loading ...
