Rodney Stevens, Clarence Valley Independent

Residents of the 2464 postcode have sent a strong message to council through a petition calling for a moratorium on land filling and further developments until a West Yamba Masterplan is developed.

Launched by environmental watchdog Valley Watch, the petition, which has garnered more than 1550 signatures from Yamba, Wooloweyah and Angourie, was presented to Clarence Valley Council Deputy Mayor Greg Clancy at Sunday’s Yamba Markets.

Valley Watch spokesperson Helen Tyas Tunggal said Clarence Valley Council doesn’t have a stormwater management plan for West Yamba and the 2008 Yamba Flood Plain Risk Management Study relied on by the council is outdated.

Ms Tyas Tunggal said since an estimated 270,000 truckloads of fill have been used to accommodate future West Yamba Development, homes that have never experienced problems before are being flooded by stormwater.

“They (council) have had so much correspondence from residents it’s time to really take notice,” she said.

Ms Tyas Tunggal called on councillors to tour the affected areas so they can see where the clear stormwater, not dirty riverine floodwater, is impacting West Yamba properties. 

“A Masterplan is long overdue, and that Masterplan needs to include a stormwater management plan, because that is currently affecting people,” she said.

Although the word “unprecedented” has been used to describe this year’s floods, Valley Watch members who checked with the Bureau of Meteorology said Yamba had experienced more rain than the 274mm in a day that fell this year.

“In 1999 Yamba got 300mm in a day, plus there were a couple of other years that exceeded this year’s 274mm, so it wasn’t an unprecedented event,” the Valley Watch member said.

Among the 50 people who gathered at the markets for the petition presentation were Yamba Road residents Lynn and Dick Troughton, whose home had never flooded since they bought it eight years ago – until the February 2022 flood.

“The people who we bought off, their grandfather never had water in the house and that’s going back over 35 years,” Mr Troughton said.

“Even sandbagging didn’t help because the water came up through the floorboards.

“Since they built up the land for the two roundabouts on Yamba Road and they put three metres of fill in Carrs Drive, we are living in a dam.

“From everywhere that’s been raised it’s the older, the original homes that are being affected.”

Yamba Road resident of 18 years, Andrew Taylor, said he has been through six floods, which have become increasingly worse.

“More and more water seems to come into my property every time it rains,” he said.

Faced with increasing stormwater from planned developments to the South, (West Yamba), and the north (Park Avenue), Mr Taylor had a message for developers.

“It’s not worth building, there’s nowhere for the water to go now, so where will it go when 136 homes are built (at Park Avenue),” he said.

After the downpour on February 28, long-term resident Peter Pryor discovered water bubbling up through his West Yamba kitchen sink, forcing his family to take extreme measures.

“For four days we bathed in a fish tub in the backyard, we washed up in a bucket, we ‘peed’ in another bucket, and four a ‘number two’ we had to go into town to the public toilets,” he said.

“We just weren’t game to put anything down the drains, when that was coming up through them.”

Cr Clancy said he was happy to receive the petitions, which he will present to Mayor Ian Tiley.

“West Yamba is our most urgent situation, it is causing major problems as we know,” he said.

With the establishment of a biodiversity committee, Cr Clancy said the recently elected council was ‘moving forward in the right direction’.

“Any Development Application for West Yamba has to comply with the Development Control Plan Part X, which is specific for West Yamba,” he said.

“As part of the motion where council accepted we need a Masterplan staff are to prepare a summary document of the West Yamba issue which will be presented to council.”

Assistance is available for flood affected Lower Clarence residents through the NSW Government Flood Property Assessment Program and the Back to Home Grant. For more information visit www.nsw.gov.au/floods/financial-support .

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 1 June 2022.

Related story: It’s back to the future for Yamba floodplain planning