One of the major criticisms against government agencies after the devastating February 28 2022 big flood was that the flood warning service was completely ineffective, leaving people no time to leave their flood-affected properties to get to safety.

This was mentioned in the 2022 NSW Flood Inquiry by Professor Mary O'Kane and Mick Fuller.

As one would expect, the region’s flood warning service is being reviewed, and the community is invited to have its say on what improvements should be made.

The Richmond and Wilsons Valley flood warning improvement project will make recommendations and fast-track improvements to our existing flood warning service to improve scope and reliability.

This may involve upgrades to existing gauges, new gauges and new flood warning service locations.

This will support the Bureau of Meteorology (The Bureau) and NSW State Emergency Service (SES) in providing accurate and timely flood warnings to the community.

The project is being led by NSW Department Planning and Environment – Environment and Heritage Group in consultation with The Bureau, SES and local councils.

It will comprise of the following phases:

• Phase 1: Review of existing flood warning service, identification of gaps and recommendations for improvements. (Status: underway)
• Phase 2: Development of an implementation plan. (Status: underway)
• Phase 3: Implementation of priority recommendations.

Part of the draft recommendations is for 13 additional rainfall and water level gauges to be installed. This was initially 29 gauges but was reduced to 13 following a multi-criteria analysis was conducted.

You can read about the full project details and the initial draft recommendations can be found at https://mhl.nsw.gov.au/floodstudies/DPEEHG/.

You can provide feedback, questions or suggestions regarding improving the existing flood warning network in the Richmond and Wilsons rivers catchment up until 10 November 2023.