Dear Chancellor,
Vice Chancellor and Members of Council,
As you watch and
re-watch the video footage of the catastrophic floods and the aftermath in and
around Hobart, and as you are forced to address the problems and the very real
risk to life arising from the flood events at the Sandy Bay campus of the
University of Tasmania, including the dramatic rescue of the security officer
trapped in a room with the rising waters, consider the implications should, and
when, such events occur at Inveresk, Launceston.
After you review
the footage of water flowing down a long hallway where people are still
present, of ruined Law Library books washed out onto the grass, of the height
reached by flood water and the resulting damage to computers in the Engineering
department and the emotional responses of staff and students, and after you
clean up and prepare to assess the damage and costs, it is incumbent upon you
to thoroughly examine the following serious matters in relation to the
University’s Northern campus.
The flood
catastrophe in Hobart and the flooding and damage at the Sandy Bay Campus have
been described as unprecedented. In stark contrast, flooding of Inveresk, the
planned relocation site of the University’s Launceston campus is not
unprecedented. Inveresk is a tidal flat that sits 1.5 metres below high level,
the only such suburb in Australia. It has been subject to serious flooding in
the past. More than half of the length of its boundary is tidal estuarine
frontage. Although it is bordered by flood levees, these levees require
constant maintenance, levees are never guaranteed to protect an area
from flood inundation, and this is becoming increasingly so in the era of
climate change and rising sea levels.
Climate change,
rising sea temperatures and rising sea levels are already affecting the North
Esk Estuary. Sea temperatures along Tasmania’s East Coast have risen 2 degrees
in recent years. The tidal range along the north coast near the mouth of the
Tamar River is approximately 3 metres. The tidal range in Launceston is around
4 metres, higher during king tides, and the water table rises with the tides.
While sea-level rise can be calculated along the coast, it is not yet known
what the effects will be on the greater tidal range or the water table at
Launceston or along the North Esk Estuary which extends for some ten kilometres
beyond the Inveresk Precinct. So not only is the North Esk River/Estuary
subject to flood waters it is also subject to the affect of tides and sea level
rises. In this era of climate change that should be a sobering thought to any
thinking person.
The Inveresk area
is zoned as Flood Inundation Zone and as such is subject to the Flood Inundation
Code of the Launceston Interim Planning Scheme. …? The deliberate intention of
the Flood Code was to permanently limit development in the flood plain (tidal
flat), irrespective of any flood protection system or the levees. The Code was mandated
by Treasury to protect the State from any future damage claim. Moreover, it should not be forgotten, that
the modelling done in 2006-7 and that resulted in the formulation of the Code,
never considered climate change. As sea temperatures rise (witness the two
degree rise already in sea temperatures off Tasmania’s East Coast), as sea
levels rise and as the number and intensity of climate events - such as that
experienced across Tasmania in June 2016 and now in Hobart – increase, rainfall
intensities are predicted to increase by 20 percent. Consequently, the 1:200
AEP (a one in 200 year event) based on the 2007 modelling, may in fact be only
1:60 AEP (a one in sixty year event) Such conditions are already being taken
into account in the Netherlands and North Germany, where flood/tidal water
management and levees (dykes) have been a way of life for many hundreds of
years and I suggest you examine the current trends in flood risk mitigation in
these countries.
During periods of high rainfall and flood warnings, water in what is one of the
longest straight stretches of the North Esk River/Estuary rushes headlong in a
direct line towards the Inveresk Precinct with the full combined force of the
ebb tide and flood waters - twice daily. Every time there is a flood emergency
for Launceston, Inveresk and, depending on the severity of the flooding
expected, parts of Invermay, need to be evacuated. The dangers of power
failures, pump failures, storm water and sewerage overflows, drinking water
contamination and resulting loss of essential services are always present. In
around 2011-2012 before the construction of the student accommodation there,
the Inveresk precinct, including all the campus buildings, was evacuated at a
monetary and time cost to the University.
These factors are
all taken into account by the Insurance industry and already prior to/ as early
as 2010-2012 resulted in large/trebling increases in insurance premiums across
the whole Inveresk suburb.
In June 2016, the Inveresk Precinct, along with the entire suburb of Inveresk
and most of Invermay was evacuated at great distress and at great cost and
effort by residents and emergency services. Emergency personnel were working
and preparing for days beforehand. The two days prior to the peak flood, and
particularly the day of the flood traffic and evacuation activity across
Inveresk and beyond were chaotic with lengthy traffic jams. All residents of
Inveresk evacuated. (The process so distressed one elderly lady, who, although
she lived on higher ground, never returned to her home and instead ended up in
a nursing home.) With the early evening installation of flood gates across the
Charles Street bridge – a highway, usually Northern Tasmania’s busiest traffic
thoroughfare/intersection – and of the five bridges across the flood plain
section of the North Esk River only one remained open. Even half of this
bridge, Tamar Street (Victoria) bridge, was closed with only two lanes open.
SES crews and police worked on into the night door-knocking Invermay residences
encouraging even those living on higher ground to leave their homes. Evacuating
the student accommodation added ten percent to the workload of the SES. The
student population of that accommodation was later described by a senior
emergency official as ‘a vulnerable population’ due to lack of own
vehicles/transport and lack of available family support. In addition, the
evacuation of its Inveresk campus cost the University $40,000. Meanwhile,
ironically, the Newnham campus, safe on high ground with its facilities and
infrastructure, was one of the city’s two flood evacuation centres.
While city and
university officials held their breath for several hours during the early
evening and well into the early hours of the next morning that the levees would hold (they were leaking
in several sections) or that flood water would not over-top them, the
relocation proponents appeared to have simply breathed a sigh of relief,
continue in denial and continue to ignore the warnings.
Events at the
Sandy Bay campus should be heeded as further warning about the damage that can
be caused by flood waters. Are you, Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and Members of
the University Council, aware of the risks and dangers associated with Inveresk
site? Are you aware that insurance industry research provides some of the best
indicators of risk assessment as they apply to the Inveresk district? Are you
aware that while events in Hobart and at Sandy Bay campus were ‘unprecedented’
and ‘catastrophic’, and that while the Sandy Bay campus is above sea level,
Inveresk sits below high tide level.? Even in times of moderately heavy rain,
storm water and sewerage spills can, and do, occur at any time across Inveresk
and the university’s nominated relocation site. For example, such occurrences
have previously affected the Museum’s conservation department and the School of
Architecture.
Given all the
above, are you prepared to dismiss the clear evidence before you of the
inevitable risks inherent with the Inveresk site? Are you prepared to dismiss
international best practice in flood management, sustainability and risk
mitigation and thereby jeopardise the national/international reputation of the
University of Tasmania? Are you prepared to deny the climate change effects on
the North Esk Estuary and continue to push the campus relocation from the
safety and security of the existing Newnham campus with its purpose-built
facilities and infrastructure to the tidal flat /flood inundation zone?
Are you prepared
to address the moral and ethical issues associated with increasing the risks
and placing added pressure on emergency service workers, and placing lives at
risk. On behalf of concerned ratepayers and residents of Launceston, the Tamar
Valley and Northern Tasmania, and staff and students of Utas, I ask you to reverse
the relocation plan with its misrepresentations and outrageous cost, which will
exceed the stated $200 million, and to return to the original fully researched
2007-2017 Master Plan plan for the refurbishment of the Newnham campus for the
cost of $59 million.
Yours faithfully,
Basil Fitch,
No comments:
Post a Comment