INXS guitarist Tim Farriss has joined the fight with other Narrabeen Lagoon residents, on Sydney's northern beaches, calling for their homes and businesses be better protected from floods.
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He was among thousands of people to be evacuated as the lagoon flooded earlier this month. It left 12 properties (including five businesses) damaged by floodwaters, and it's come a year after council called on the public's feedback to help find a solution.
Farriss said this month's flood left an outbuilding on his property, that contains his office, his wife Beth's art studio and some of his INXS memorabilia, under a foot of water.
Some of the memorabilia was press clippings his parents had collected from the band's early days on the northern beaches, to when they became one of the biggest bands in the world.
"Everything got covered in a slime from the silt and we all got sick, I'm not sure if that's a coincidence or not," he said.
"You could smell sewer and we're all wading in the water, it wasn't very pleasant."
Unaffordable insurance
An annual premium of $20,000 for flood insurance is outside what most homeowners can afford, Collins Street resident Jake Downs said.
Floodwaters have crept onto his North Narrabeen property three times since he moved there in 2014. "Only one time, in 2016, did it cause us to move anything," he said.
The recent wild weather only caused minor damage to his property from stormwater that couldn't get away, and he acknowledged "it is really hard to manage the storm we had in that period of time".
Despite the lack of damage from floods, his home and contents insurance has spiked by 70 per cent in the past year - from $2100 to $3600.
Mr Downs praised council for ensuring there was a wide outflow from Narrabeen Lagoon to the ocean and said that, combined with favourable tides, helped keep the damage bill down.
Kayaking down the drive
A Darius Avenue resident who asked not to be named said her property flooded in 2019 and 2020. Three cars were written off during the 2019 flood, and then in 2020 her yard was so flooded that her son was able to kayak from the back yard out to the driveway.
This month, floodwaters come from two directions to her property - stormwater run-off from Pittwater Road floods in from the west, while Narrabeen Lagoon rises to the south.
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"You couldn't see the road, it was all lake," she said. While she praised council for its handling of the Lagoon, she said continual stormwater runoff from Pittwater Road must be fixed.
With a $12,000 premium to cover her house for flooding, the Darius Avenue resident said she's decided to take the gamble it would cost less than that to fix damage if a flood did occur.
Mitigation helped save us
Dozens of Narrabeen residents have taken to social media to praise council for the work it's doing to protect homes.
"Lagoon was open. Had nothing to do with the lagoon. That amount of rain would cause floods anywhere people," Ross Evans posted to the '2101 Community Page Narrabeen, North Narrabeen, Elanora, Ingleside' Facebook page.
Margaret Anne Smith posted to the page: "I believe that the entrance being open with a big wide channel saved us from being submerged".
John Ferguson wrote: "The council did a great job of having the lagoon open when it did. That was a lot of rain, and we were inundated from rain runoff from the plateau not the lagoon".
Planning to make a plan
Narrabeen ward councillor Vincent De Luca said low flow pipes already in operation at the entrance of Manly Lagoon might help protect residents around Narrabeen Lagoon.
The pipes are one option in council's Narrabeen Lagoon Entrance Management Strategy, that was put out to the public a year ago and received 111 submissions. While it's yet to be acted on, councillors will consider the draft strategy at their April meeting.
Currently, council's flood mitigation includes manual opening and 'entrance clearing operations' which involves the removal of up to 50,000 cubic metres of sand from the entrance area (west and east of the Ocean Street Bridge) with earthmoving equipment. Entrance clearing operations were conducted in 2016, 2018 and most recently from September to December 2021, and this usually takes several months to complete.
"Environmentalists don't want it dredged, but residents do want it dredged. Council has failed to take a leadership stand," Cr De Luca said.
Environmentalists don't want it dredged, but residents do want it dredged. Council has failed to take a leadership stand.
- Northern Beaches councillor Vincent De Luca
He also said "it costs millions of dollars to do manual opening and dredging and it's ineffective", but council revealed operations cost $26,000 in 2020-21. So far during 2021-22, the bill is higher at around $1.36 million, due to the recent entrance clearing operations, but the NSW Government paid for some of this.
Council also denied claims that if residents spoke out to the media about the flooding, that no further flood mitigation works would be conducted.
While the draft strategy's release was delayed by the recent local government elections, council has been working with experts and an independent working group to review and refine the document.
Council CEO Ray Brownlee said staff actively monitor Lagoon levels around the clock, and conduct entrance clearance and other flood mitigation measures when needed.
"Thankfully, council was able to complete the large scale excavation work at the end of last year before we experienced an event like this," he said of the recent floods.
The draft strategy will be put to the community for further consultation in May.