Flood Response Review - final report

On Tuesday 24 May, the Flood Response Review Board handed down their report, Brisbane Flood January 2011 – Independent Review of Brisbane City Council’s Response, 9-22 January 2011.

The report summarises the key findings regarding Council’s response between Sunday, 9 and Saturday, 22 January 2011 to the flood events. The report documents observations and makes recommendations on amendments to plans, procedures, roles and responsibilities. It also provides advice for improvements for Council’s disaster management arrangements and its response to future events.

Download the Flood Response Review Board’s report, Brisbane Flood January 2011 – Independent Review of Brisbane City Council’s Response, 9-22 January 2011 (PDF - 648kb).

Download the maps from the report:

  1. Brisbane River and its Tributaries (PDF - 2.4Mb)
  2. Location of Flood Gauges along Brisbane River (PDF - 2.8Mb)
  3. Defined Flood Level (DFL) and Flooding Extent January 2011 - Brisbane (PDF - 1.3Mb)
  4. Defined Flood Level (DFL) and Flooding Extent January 2011 - South Brisbane (PDF - 2.6Mb)
  5. Defined Flood Level (DFL) and Flooding Extent January 2011 – Tennyson (PDF - 2.2Mb)
  6. Defined Flood Level (DFL) and Flooding Extent January 2011 – Rosalie Area (PDF - 2.6Mb)
  7. Defined Flood Level (DFL) and Flooding Extent January 2011 – Rocklea (PDF - 2.9Mb)
  8. Defined Flood Level (DFL) and Flooding Extent January 2011 – Bellbowrie (PDF - 2.6Mb)
  9. Sandbag Delivery and Depot Points (PDF - 1.5Mb)
  10. Evacuation Centres and Activated Brisbane City Council Assets (PDF - 1.5Mb)
  11. Brisbane City Council Volunteer Registration Centres and Drop Off Points 15 - 16 January 2011 (PDF - 1.5Mb)
  12. Waste Disposal Sites (PDF - 1.4Mb)
  13. Brisbane City Council Stormwater Infrastructure (PDF - 1.4Mb)
  14. Brisbane City Council Riverine Infrastructure (PDF - 1.6Mb).

Download the Flood Response Review Board's Terms of Reference (PDF - 22kb).

Flood Response Review Board members

The Flood Response Review Board members were:

  • Major General (retired) Peter Arnison AC CVO
  • Mr Robert Gotterson QC
  • Emeritus Professor Colin Apelt.

The Flood Response Review Board was fully endorsed by Council and had access to speak to Council officers and view any relevant document, email or phone record.

To obtain a community perspective, flood-affected residents were interviewed by independent consulting engineers network, GHD. The board was empowered to request other specialist technical support as required.

Read the GHD discussion paper Engineering solutions for flood mitigation in Brisbane (PDF - 543kb).

The Flood Response Review Board’s scope of work

The Flood Response Review Board's focus was to determine the:

  • effectiveness of Council’s disaster management arrangements (including the Local Disaster Management Group and Local Disaster Coordination Centre)
  • impact of the existing planning regulations in flood-affected areas
  • command, control, coordination and communications
  • effectiveness and timeliness of public warnings and advice
  • information management (including the Geographic Information System (GIS), flood modelling and monitoring systems) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) arrangements
  • effectiveness of flood prevention and stormwater infrastructure
  • analysis of the reasons for Council’s riverine infrastructure failures
  • integration of Council’s response with other agencies
  • effectiveness of the response, including:
    • field operations
    • evacuation
    • intelligence management and dissemination
    • forward planning
    • management of supporting agencies
    • logistics planning and procurement arrangements
    • contractor support and management
    • management of volunteers (individuals through to large commercial support)
    • waste and debris management and disposal
    • transition to recovery.

Other issues such as activation and escalation were to be noted in the report.

Internal aspects included consideration of:

  • clarification of roles and responsibilities
  • systems and data (for collecting, modelling, collating and sharing data)
  • emergency shelters, one-stop-shops and recovery centres
  • communications between the Local Disaster Coordination Centre (LDCC) and operationally deployed elements, including multiple Regional Incident Management Teams (RIMT)
  • interaction between LDCC (Field Operations Group (FOG), Disaster Intelligence Group (DIG) and ISG), Forward Planning Group (FPG), RIMT and recovery committees.

External aspects included consideration of:

  • systems and data (for collecting, collating and sharing data with other agencies)
  • the division of responsibilities for emergency shelters, one-stop-shops and recovery centres
  • Council’s relationship with Local Disaster Management Group (LDMG) and the wider disaster management system, including the District Disaster Coordination Centre (DDCC) and State Disaster Coordination Centre (SDCC).

The review activities included:

  • facilitated debrief sessions
  • a review of LDCC information (logs and other documentation)
  • briefing reports from business units if available
  • interviews of Council persons (including the Lord Mayor, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Incident Controllers and LDCC personnel, RIMT commanders and peer executives)
  • interviews of key external stakeholders
  • attendance at CEO debrief session
  • limited interviews with a representative sample of residents across the inundation area.
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