Murwillumbah Town Levee Tumbulgum Rd Whaft Street area
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The Tweed Shire Council has received $6 million in funding from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for flood mitigation projects, including new pumps.

The funding is a part of a $150 million commitment by the Australian Government to improve the disaster resilience of the Northern Rivers region.

The Tweed Shire region was hit with record breaking damage, particularly to the road network, and has an estimated damages bill of more than $110 million to Council infrastructure alone.

The Tweed region received $6 million in funding for a number of projects, including:

  • A new pump system within the East Murwillumbah Levee (south of George Street) to assist with drainage – $1,461,114
  • New low flow pump at Lavender Creek and Murwillumbah CBD – $969,106
  • Earthworks across Lot 4 on Quarry Road to preserve the South Murwillumbah Condong flowpath – $942,480
  • Additional Wharf Street, Murwillumbah pump capacity – $2,355,065.

The funding announcement coincided with the release of two CSIRO reports into the 2022 flood in the Northern Rivers.

The Tweed projects were announced as part of the first phase of the Northern Rivers Resilience Initiative which will see 16 projects recommended by the CSIRO to receive $50 million in funding, with the bulk of the funding to go to Lismore.

Mayor of Tweed Shire, Chris Cherry, said he is really pleased to see the Federal and New South Wales Governments change their focus on recovery to one of flood mitigation

“We look forward to working with both tiers of government to deliver these projects as part of the first tranche of funding, as well as future projects as part of the greater $150 million package,” Mr Cherry said.

“It is really critical for the resilience of our community moving forward that we are focused on what we can do to prevent such devastation from happening again. While we can’t do much to control the weather, we can put measures in place to reduce risk to both the community and infrastructure.”

Tweed Shire Council’s Director Engineering, David Oxenham, said the additional funding was most welcome.

“The projects selected by the CSIRO reflect those projects in Tweed’s various floodplain risk management plans which predated the 2022 flood,” Mr Oxenham said.

“They will require further investigation to determine their feasibility and current estimated costs, and this will take some time to complete. These projects are at various stages of development with some currently being investigated and others which remain in the preliminary stages of development.

“Tweed Shire has been the recipient of a large number of grant programs across roads, drainage, flood mitigation, community resilience, environmental restoration and more, and while we are grateful for this funding injection, we need time to find the resources to administer these grants, allocate our own works crews and technical specialists, and try to find and appoint contractors in a market that is overheated – all while ensuring value for public money.”

Feature image Murwillumbah Town Levee Tumbulgum Rd Whaft Street area. Provided by Tweed Shire Council.

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