PM Transcripts

JAUSTRALIA~ g Press Statement No. 396
December 1974
AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT SUPPORT FOR BRISBANE FLOOD MITIGATION
WORKS
The Australian Government has approved up to
$ 1 million for the first stage of a flood mitigation
measures program in Brisbane this financial year.
The Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam announced this is Canberra
today. Assistance of $ 800,000 will be provided for works
on the Enoggera/ Breakfast Creek, and $ 200,000 for
assistance towards an early warning program and flood
mitigation and evacuation measures on the Brisbane Creek.
The Enoggera/ Breakfast Creek works will involve
the first stage of the reconstruction of the Enoggera
Dam and associated dredging works for the lower reaches
of the Breakfast Creek.
" If we are to protect people in future from
floods of the kind Brisbane has suffered in the past
couple of summers, we must take a comprehensive approach
to the problem," Mr Whitlam said.
" This must include an examination of land use
controls, of flood monitoring and of evacuation
techniques and equipment, as well as physical works on
dams and drainage.
" The Brisbane flood disasters of 1972 and 1974
showed that the city lacks an adequate system of flood
plain management. " As I said in Brisbane on 21 November, we have
made repeated requests at official level to the
Queensland Government to furnish firm works proposals
on which we could base decisions regarding further
mitigation projects.
" This is why it is possible to go ahead with
only the Enoggera/ Breakfast Creek works at this stage.
It also explains why no other major works can be
announced at this stage, and particularly why no major
physical works can be carried out before the coming
wet season."