Inglewood residents encouraged to get up to date with latest edition of Flood Action Guide

Residents and businesses in Inglewood can expect to receive a copy of the latest edition of the Inglewood Flood Action Guide in the mail within the coming weeks.

Goondiwindi Regional Council has released the second edition of the guide, which includes new information about the Inglewood flood evacuation assembly point at the Cemetery Road site, as well as updated information and resources from Get Ready Queensland.

Chair of the Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) Councillor Rick Kearney is encouraging residents to read through the new edition to make sure they’re up to date and know what to do before, during and after a flooding situation.

“As a community, the best way we can protect ourselves and minimise the effects of floods or any disaster is to be prepared,” Cr Kearney said. “Our region is not immune to flooding, as we were reminded earlier this year, and Inglewood has been identified as being particularly at risk.

“The Flood Action Guide gives locally specific advice and enables residents to make informed decisions during a flood. It’ll also help you to prepare by guiding you through the creation of a household emergency plan and household emergency kit.”

The publication of the new edition has been delivered under the Queensland Government’s Get Ready Queensland funding program, which helps local governments to improve disaster resilience within their community.

Flood mapping by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority in 2014 and the Inglewood Flood Study in 2015 identified the township as having a significant flood hazard risk due to the short timeframe between rainfall in the catchment area and a potential flood event, which could quickly lead to evacuation routes being flooded and the town becoming isolated. 

Cr Kearney, who also holds Council’s portfolio for Local Disaster Management, said Council had executed several projects to mitigate that risk to the community since then.

“Council published the first edition of the Inglewood Flood Action Guide in 2016. We’ve also developed the Inglewood Flood Evacuation Operational Plan and implemented the Flood Marker Project,” Cr Kearney said. “With external funding from the Natural Disaster Resilience Program, we’ve also been able to achieve some critical infrastructure upgrades, to better support the use of the Inglewood Cemetery as a flood evacuation assembly point during a significant flood event.”

Flood records for Inglewood are available from as far back as 1956. The largest recorded floods to date occurred in January-February 1956 and February 1976, when the river height reached 12.50 metres and 11.73 metres respectively on the Inglewood bridge flood gauge. In comparison, the Macintyre Brook peaked at just 5.9 metres, considered a minor flood level, on 7 April this year following rain across the catchment area.

Council has engaged a local business to produce and print the new edition and Australia Post will deliver it to all residential addresses and post office box owners within the town in early July.

Residents can also view the new edition of the flood action guide on Council’s website at: www.grc.qld.gov.au/council/disasters/management/local-disaster-management-plan