South Burnett Regional Council Update – ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth from 7 – 10 January 2022
South Burnett Regional Council crews have been activated during and since the heavy rainfall in the Gympie Region catchments impacting the South Burnett
as well as associated rainfall in northern and eastern parts of our region over the weekend. Ongoing rainfall has further impacted and increased existing damage from our November/December rain event (Central, Southern and Western Queensland Rainfall and Flooding, 10 November – 3 December 2021) as well as general impact across the whole road network.
Council crews worked with emergency services and the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council across the weekend.
Queensland Reconstruction Authorise (QRA) has been in contact with Council’s CEO to ascertain impact and commit resources, and recently advised of the activation of ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth in our region and a formal activation has been requested.
Council crews have made good progress on emergent repairs for the November/December rain event. To date approximately 500 individual priority emergent repairs have been undertaken with approximately 400 repairs programmed to be undertaken as holding works over coming weeks prior to commencement of any future restoration works. Whilst many inspections have been completed, approximately 130 roads are yet to be finalised for the November/December rain event. These inspections are critical to ensure Council can work with both State and Commonwealth Governments to access opportunities for assistance to repair the road networks.
However, immediate action using additional Council resources has commenced to identify emergent repairs resulting from the ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth with inspection staff working in the impacted area.
All safety related road defects will be prioritised, and all efforts will be made to maximise the effective use of available resources in emergent repairs and high priority road maintenance activity in the short term. These weather events have also caused delays on existing defects on the network as works are now being performed on a basis of highest priority and safety.
