Faulty flood gauge underestimates Daintree River level by two metres
BROKEN GAUGE
A revelation by Douglas Shire Mayor Michael Kerr that a faulty flood gauge underestimated the Daintree River level by two metres during recent flooding, has prompted a response by the body that owns the gauge – the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water.
The state government department says the gauge – at Bairds on the Upper Daintree – was repaired on Tuesday this week, nearly three months after it malfunctioned.
Cr Kerr said the broken gauge meant Daintree residents received little warning about by the late February floodwaters which inundated many properties and roads along the river and cut them off.
He was quoted in a media release from the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) as saying that the gauge’s prediction was for a six-metre level in the Daintree River, which ended up rising to eight metres instead – taking the community by surprise.
The release focused on what several councils across the state said was a “critical lack of federal funding” leaving Queensland with a flood warning system prone to breakdown and patchy coverage.
The department told Newsport that it had been in regular contact with Council since the malfunction, but had faced difficulty in reaching the device – accessible only by boat – due to river levels being too high and the presence of “quite a lot of crocodiles,” according to a spokesperson.
The wet season had eased off enough recently, the spokesperson said, to allow access to the gauge for repairs, which have now been completed.
“This gauge is a crucial gauge (rainfall and river height) in flood modelling and giving warning to downstream properties,” Cr Kerr said to Newsport in a statement.
He also echoed the views of the LGAQ, which is lobbying for the federal government to better fund, even take over ownership, of more of the state’s network of gauges.
“Whilst more gauges will always assist in flood modelling and intelligence, the bigger question is the annual maintenance, repair and calibration of these assets,” Cr Kerr said.
“The costs are increasingly expensive and obtaining contractors has been a recent problem for repair work. Council, along with other Councils in the region and the LGAQ are lobbying the State and Federal Government to be responsible for at least some of these assets which should form part of a State and National data base for natural resources and disaster management.”
Through disaster funding, Council has been able to install a river level gauge downstream from the Bairds gauge as a backup. But they weren’t able to count on the new equipment in the recent flood.
“However this gauge is new and the relationship between the levels recorded and downstream predicted levels has not yet been reliably established,” the Mayor said.
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