Disaster And Emergency Committee Meeting - 16 September 2025

2.1.1, Emergency Management Update.

Is there a staff report, or... ? Yep. The report's in the business papers, Councillor, and there is a recommendation. Someone like.. . Councillor McMahon, Councillor Redden.

Is there any questions in relation to the report?

Councillor Lyne-Puckett.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I'd like to thank staff for this material and for bringing us some as well, and for the report being done.

I am interested, though, how we would be monitoring the effectiveness of these strategies. I'm just wondering if there's any sort of evaluation process or anything that goes along with this. Like, we do all these brochures and we put them out. How would we be measuring the effectiveness of any of this?

General Manager.

If you don't mind, Mr Mayor

With regard to the Hawkesbury Community Hubs, we average about 27 attendees... Each week at each hub, I'm out in community all the time. I'm attending events. I'm making

Every effort to prepare community for disasters. We've distributed 5,000 grab-and-go bags with emergency checklists, waterproof wallets, and that was funded by the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, which covered three staff. I'm currently doing that on my own at the moment. The high neighbour campaign we launched at Hawkesbury Show, that was the feedback from community who filled out our inquiry was, What makes a good neighbour? We had over 1,200 people fill that out, and in summary, overwhelming responses were someone who looks out for you and checks on you now and then, kind and friendly and helpful, offers support when needed, always there to help you when you need it, respects your privacy, and shares some food sometimes.

The feedback from community was, What a great initiative after COVID, when COVID gave permission for community to actually disconnect. We're trying to get community to connect again. And at the moment, the latest study from the University of New South Wales—University of Sydney, sorry— identifies that 40% of community are saying that they are very lonely. The loneliness is at an epidemic, and it's something that we need to address. And if we're going to, the best way to support community in times of a disaster is to make sure neighbours are connected. It's not going to be an RFS truck or an SES truck that's going to be on your doorstep. And we certainly don't have enough of those in community for that to happen.

So your best bet is your neighbour. So the idea of all this is to get people to connect more. It's okay to say hi to your neighbour. A lot of people said to me they don't want neighbours in their back pocket, but they want to know they're there. They want to know that they'll put the bin out for them if they go away. They want to know they'll feed the dog if they have to go away. They want to know that, especially our older residents, and in remote areas of the LGA, we have a high percentage of older Australians who are extremely vulnerable. So all these initiatives were put in place, and we have community hubs in Collaroy Heights and St Albans, and not so much Wilberforce of being remote. But those community hubs are vital for connecting those communities.

They're all run in different ways and in different fashions and connecting different demographics to support community. If we don't support community, we don't have a good foundation as a race . We need to have community connectedness so we can actually all have a better... Life . It's been proven that, particularly for women, the longer they feel lonely, the closer they are to dying, which is extremely sad.

What else can I tell you? The Health and Wellbeing Emergency Handbook was put out in collaboration with Nepean Health, and it's something that's very much needed. It's going out to every doctor, to every chemist. It will go into the hospital; it's already gone into hospitals. But it's a comprehensive overview of how people can be prepared and what they need to do to be prepared. It also looks at particularly those that are vulnerable in our community and how they can be supported. We have been told by New South Wales RA that the funding's going to flip. It used to be 97% to community and 3% to other things. Now it's going to be the other way. So we really need to make sure that our community are as supported as they can be and have as much information as they can to be self-sufficient.

We also have a Recovery on Wheels network, which has over 180 state, federal, community and NGO organisations that feed in and out of that Recovery on Wheels network. We used to meet fortnightly; now it's monthly as we're— Not in a disaster or coming out of a disaster. That recovery on Wheels Network, I used that to gear up to establish a recovery centre in Wilberforce last year after our moderate flood, and that was established within two days. That network is vital so that we can call on those supports to support our community. And the community were delighted that it was in a community hall close to where the locals live, and it wasn't in an official sort of building. All these are initiatives that we're using to ensure that people are well educated and well informed.

I have had something in my head for a couple of years that I'd really like to start a mobile hub, get it geared up not so much for people to be in, but to have all the gear that we need so it can be taken out to communities. It can be taken out in times of disaster, so it's geared up with everything that they would need. We can use it as a pop-up, and with this high neighbour, if we can get that getting a lot of traction, I'd really like to be able to take that mobile hub to encourage street parties so that we can go deeper into that community connectedness. It's really important. So yeah, as far as statistics go, we've got the numbers that come to the hubs. We've got the 5,000 grab-and-go bags.

The cost of the bags are quite high, and so that was Bushfire funding, and that's expired. So I'm limited with the funding I've got, but with what I have got, I really make it. spin out and get the best value that I can out of it.

Thanks very much.

Mr Mayor, could I comment? And thank you so much for that. That's like music to my ears. I love all this work, the connectedness factor of it, and I think you're doing remarkably well if you've got limited funding around doing that. And thank you so much because, of course, you're addressing those multi layers of loneliness and preparedness as well. And I'm really pleased to see that. I'm really glad that you spoke about it also. It's on the public record because I know that it's still only getting to pockets of the community, and I think it's really, really valuable work that Council is doing in this regard. And I hope that it can spread. It's fundamental, of course, with any upcoming disaster that that's in place.

So thank you for providing us the materials, and thank you for that lovely summary, particularly, I think around the health and wellbeing, going to all the doctors and the chemists and various things is particularly good. And there was something else I wrote down. I don't know where. And particularly, do you have, I don't know how many of you do it, but I'm figuring it's pretty much just you. So congratulations. I think that's a job really well done. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillors.

On page 10, there's a couple of things that I'd ask the staff. In relation to Transport New South Wales, with the video footage and the closure of Yerramundi Bridge at the last... Mine, a flood we had, the water didn't actually go over the bridge; they closed it. Can you give us a bit of background on why that happened?

Yep. Pardon me, through you, Mr Mayor. My understanding is that it was actually the lagoon just to the east of the river, which overtopped the small bridge just below Castle Ray Road on Springwood Road. That's what caused the closure of Springwood Road at that point, rather than the bridge being overtopped down at Yarramundi. Having said that, it did come very, very close. I think the water was impacting on the superstructure of the bridge, but it was the localised flows down through that lagoon network that caused the overtopping of Springwood Road there.

Thank you. Just in relation to that location, and I think the cameras are really good. A lot of people take advantage of those. They're on the ferries and all that sort of stuff, because you can't get to the ferries in some cases and that information. On the eastern side of the bridge, where the sharp bends are as you come out, this most recent rain and the one before it has created landslips, so it's getting reasonably close to the bend in that road. Can we have the staff investigate that and see whether there's any action that needs to be taken?

Through you, Mr Mayor, I look at that just about every morning when I come over

The bridge.

It's one for Transport for New South Wales, and although we haven't raised it with them yet, it's something that is, I guess, I'm monitoring with the river as it rises. The primary scarp or slip site is about 20 or 30 metres downstream of the road reserve. But yeah, as it progresses or it doesn't have a chance to revegetate, we'll certainly raise it with Transport for New South Wales before it becomes an issue.

Thank you. The next stop point was the installation of river height gauges on the McDonald, St Albans and Colo rivers. With the studies that have been done, that we've done in relation to those, the

Gauges are most important, especially on the St Albans. It has a big impact on a large section of the community, with very little opportunity to evacuate. They've just got to get up the hill. They can't use the roads. Do you know what the time frame is for the proposed gauges to go in? Because the ones on the McDonald haven't always been operational either.

Yeah, so we've installed two flood gauges, or river gauges, with this funding. So one on the bridge over the Putty Road over the Colo River, and one in St Albans. So both gauges have been installed and commissioned. The St Albans gauge, I understand, is feeding data back to the Bureau of Meteorology. My understanding is that there's some communications issues that the, I think it's Manly Hydraulics, Water New South Wales, Manly Hydraulics are sorting out with the flood gauge or the river gauge on the Putty Road bridge. We don't have a timeline on when that will be resolved.

Thank you. And lastly, the next stop point that I want to make comment on was the relationship that RFS and Council had in relation to solar panel signs located on— Tennison Road at Vineyard, Tennison Road at Tennison, and old East Kurrajong Road, Roberts Creek Road. I don't know whether you've seen those, but there's a sign that's illuminated and says road closed, and it's activated by the water on the road. And the council received that information and the like. So one of the frustrations from our staff point of view is that when the roads go under, in some cases, and Tennison Road's a good example, it's about a 20k round trip just put a sign on the other side. So what seems someone says, You're closing the road off, it's not quite that simple.

These signs are automatic, they work terrific, and they're the worst locations in our city. In the last—not the last lot of rain—the rain before, we had a car go in on Tennison Road. It's dark, you go down the hill across the dip, and if water's across the road, you end up before you know it. So it was really good for Roadtree and Council. It was a good project, it worked well. Roadtree have certainly beaten their chest, and they need to. It was a good project.

Anybody else?

Councillor.

You hit the wrong button. Sorry.

Just regarding Wilberforce School of Arts and its use as a hub , we really are going to need to address parking at that site. Now we've lost use of the private property next door because it's got a cab van on it. People are stuck parking on Wilberforce Road. It really doesn't have a shoulder. It certainly doesn't have much accessible space if people have got to walk up to it. So it's a fantastic facility, but we need to have a discussion about making that more accessible and a safer location for people to park. I'm not sure what the answer is, but we need to find one. Or we're rendering a very large, very useful hall a bit of a white elephant if people can't. And if we're going to use it as an emergency centre or an emergency hub, when we've fed a lot of people out of that hall in successive floods, we can't continue on with a site where people just can't pull over onto the side of the road.

We will have an emergency there if the traffic keeps up as it is on both sides of the road at Wilberforce.

I'm wondering how well we're advertising these hubs, so I suspect that the same people are coming back. It might be worth just doing another round of advertising. The yoga pops up occasionally, but they're not our ads on the Wilberforce and Ebenezer page. It's word of mouth, which is good. It's great that people are so happy with it that they're recommending it, but we could probably do with another round of advertising to get people connected. Wilberforce has a fairly mixed population. There's a lot of people who now work full time, but there are also increasing numbers of older people who would probably really appreciate the connection of some of these, despite not being technically You know, severely disaster impacted.

I've also started to see some of the bug out bags appear in the backpack section of various op shops, and I wonder, and there are a couple of bucks, is it worth gathering those and refilling them and sending them out again? Is that a cheaper option than—I don't know what was in them to start with, because I didn't ever take one—but is it something that we could fill if we start retrieving some of that already used infrastructure? Thanks.

Thank you, Councillor.

General Manager, in relation to the Wilberforce School of Arts, it's probably properly on both sides. One's badly flood affected, and the other one we have used in the past and there's been implications with that most recently. Could the staff look at the feasibility or opportunity, perhaps, that land might be vacant, might be available under circumstances to look at car parking?

Through you, Mr Mayor, yes. Look, we're certainly happy to have a look at it. There is obviously constraints associated with that, and probably the broader question is, is the School of Arts the most suitable facility in Wilberforce for the hub enduring? But we can certainly have a look at it.

Thank you.

Councillor.

Mr Mayor, I was just wondering if we could have an update on the camping at the Upper Colo Reserve, because I know for a long time it wasn't allowable there. If we could just have an update on what's happened, and I see there's something here about the total fire ban signage, but has anything else happened with the amenities or with anything else up there that is different from since the bridge was redone out there?

Through you, Mr Mayor. In terms of the physical assets, there hasn't been anything other than some signage installed to some total fire ban signage. Since we've reopened, we have introduced, which Council would be aware, a caretaker during the open season. Outside of that, it's one of our key actions in the ignition prevention plan, which we contribute to as a member of the Bushfire Management Committee, that we close the reserve and ask campers to leave once a certain fire behaviour index has been reached. When we have flood warnings for the Colo River, so not a— well, certainly for a flood warning, occasionally for a flood watch, we will send out a broadcast SMS to those who have booked and provided a mobile phone contact.

And similarly, we do the same for total fire bans. We've also engaged with, through the district office, the local RFS, who include that on their runs during a total fire ban, which I think there was one total fire ban in January this year where they attended and there were four smouldering campfires. So yeah, that's the extent of what we've done at the moment.

Are there big numbers of people going there? Are there many people utilising it, or

I don't know the answer to that question. I can certainly find out the numbers that have booked.

Just for interest, really, because it used to be very popular before it was closed down. Thank you. Mr Mayor, I had another question, if I may. With my motion to have this meeting, there was a request that you present to the committee your findings of the floodplain management conference, but I don't want to put you on the spot. I'm happy if you don't want to do it. Oh, you've got— okay. Fire away. It's not on the agenda, so I thought it wasn't coming. Now I'm excited. Thank you.

Is there any further questions or debate? Thank you.

Oh, you're not going to read out your report?

I'm going to do it after this item. I can do it now if you like. No,

Thank you very much. I'll take this as a right of reply if no one else is wanting to contribute, then that's a right of reply. Thank you. I'll just make it very short and sweet, but these kind of committee meetings, I think, are important just to highlight for those listening, or perhaps to put permanently on the public record — surprise, surprise — what I'm going to say, the wonderful work of our staff. So I think people need to understand, something I've said consistently as the mayor, as well in a lot of media interviews when I was the mayor, is how much this area, the Hawkesbury, really is targeted by Mother Nature more than a lot of other council areas. Just with the fires, the floods and the storms, we really seem to cop it for some reason.

I don't know if it's a geographic thing, I don't know what it is, but we really do. And if you go back a few years before the Black Summer fires, that really was the starting point for a consistent period of disasters here in the Hawkesbury. So I just wanted to highlight the work that our staff have done over and above what their normal jobs are. I think we are very blessed here in the Hawkesbury to have educated, committed and passionate staff who actually care about our community, from those who attend council — sorry, community meetings regarding disasters, those who attend and run our hubs and have made invaluable connections with community members that have made a real lasting impact and difference to the lives of our local residents.

I think that that needs to be put on the record. There is no doubt that here in the Hawkesbury, we have ongoing trauma from our community. I think there is a lot of unhealed trauma from what people have experienced through the fires, the floods, and if they weren't adversely impacted by the floods, they of course might have been cut off from access to the rest of the community from their employment or their schools. So I think that it's important to— Say what our staff do. Council gets a negative rap quite a lot in the community, and the positive things get swept under the carpet from what people do to make a contribution or an impact just to one person's life. So I think it's important to say that, as an elected body, we value our staff and what they do to bring a positive name to Council and a positive difference to this community.

Thank you.

Well said, Deputy Mayor.

The motion is as the recommendation in the business paper. Those in favour? Against? It's carried by the councillors that are here. Just further to the report, I attended the FIPAN conference on the 13th of May this year, and

I highlighted some of the things that I attended in the four days there. There's research into rapid and slow onset flooding in New South Wales and Queensland. These are workshops introduced developing floodplain management plans focused on different management options. They come from all over the country. There was research in flood behaviour and community experiences, developing floodplain management plans. Most of those were attended by probably 50 people in each session. And while they're workshops, all of them make themselves available for questions, usually during, so when an issue comes up, people can ask questions in relation to. Anything they're talking about, I guess. The theme of the conference was floodgates, no boundaries.

One of the workshops provided a hands-on introduction to the Monte Carlo engine that's compatible with the major Australian hydraulic models. One of the other workshops related to levees. One of the longest and effective levees is in Penrith on South Creek, something that I wasn't aware of. But it's there. There was photographs and information and the likes, it was there. The reason it was brought up, because there's actually trees growing in the levee that make it vulnerable to breakage. There's awareness of the conference. There was an award at the conference for the best project of the year. Last year, 2024, was the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain study, a joint effort by New South Wales Resilient Authority, Realm, Catchment Simulation Solutions and WMA Water.

The project provided critical contemporary flood information of one of the highest-risk floodplains that encompasses eight local government areas in Western Sydney. That's our river. It was received really well, and there's a lot of work gone into it, and some of you have seen that document. And I have copies of those documents if anyone wants to see them. This year, the project was in Western Australia for the new Fitzroy Bridge in the Kimberley region. It was the project of the year in the National Engineers Australia Excellence Award for its constructive initiatives in engineering and impact on the community. The old bridge was destroyed in the devastating floods of December 2022 and rebuilt in 11 months.

Until the temporary causeway was completed and the completion of the bridge, there's a distance of just under 700 kilometres to get to the other side of the river. Quite remote area and a major, major job. The conference was the biggest in most recent times, with just on 500 attendees from all over Australia, as well as representatives from England, New Zealand and the United States. The attendees were predominantly professionals from both council and civil engineering, and the rest made up of elected representatives. I'd like to thank our council staff. One of the presentations was by our staff on our recent flood plans, and that was well received. The conference also allowed me to catch up with two mayors.

Two of those was the Mayor of Lismore and the Mayor of Parks, which I do every time I go there, both who had major infrastructure damage to council's assets caused by recent floods and how they were dealing with those projects financially to bring them back online. The conference was for four days. You could choose up to five sessions on any day. There was many more to choose from. They varied from individual council experiences, overseas representatives, a variety of government authorities and organisations such as the Insurance Council of Australia. Throughout those days, there's business booths some of you have been to that offers information on the latest technology that may be on offer for flood protection under different scenarios.

I'll just table that as read, and if there's any questions in relation to that, I can make websites available for anyone who wants to look at any of the information, and a lot of the hard copies that were on offer I have.

Thanks, Mr Mayor. I think I was sorry to miss it this year. I'm just interested, and you won't probably know the answer of this, but maybe the staff know something about it. The South Creek levee, I didn't know the longest levee — is it in New South Wales or in—

I believe that to be the case.

Yeah, okay. The longest levee is on South Creek in Penrith. I'm just wondering if there's been — I know there was a South Creek flood study done in around 2015 or 2016. Whether there's been any studies done around the impact of that levee diverting the water, because as we know going into South Creek there's all the water from the hard surfacing on the Blacktown side . I'm just wondering if there was any discussion of that, because I think we get all that water, of course, down here, and, yeah.

I attended that particular session because I'd never heard of it before. There's this, the levee protects houses that are very close to the levee from flooding to go back in the streets. I don't know of any study. I'd never heard of the levee before. The studies have been done on South Creek, indeed on the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley. I'd never heard of it. That's why I attended it. And that particular seminar never indicated the impact that it may have. It related to the impact that in relation to the protection it gives those properties that's behind it

Interesting, thanks

Okay, Councillors, I'll just table that document. There's no need to move anything on it. Is there any further

Questions? Councillor?

Thanks, Mr Mayor. And some of these are probably for future discussion. One of the things that I was asked a number of times, I have been asked a number of times in the last couple of weeks, it's Get Ready Day for the RFS this Saturday, and a few of the stations have raised with me that they're finding the— It feels like there's additional hoops to jump through, particularly those who want to have a barbecue, so where they would just dig out the barbecue and hose it down, or whatever it is they do with a barbecue, they're having to have food handling certificates and things. They're finding some of this quite onerous. For next, obviously it's in four days' time, can we be a bit mindful of this perhaps for Get Ready Day next year, so that maybe we can have a package or some sort of work that we do with the RFS so that sheds are more ready so that they can run Get Ready Day.

It seems to be proving more onerous this year. I don't know if it's just because they've heard of the rules and are now following them, or when we've not had to before, or I don't know what's changed, but they're finding it troublesome. So if we could be aware of that, that'll be a next year job, I think. And a couple of other things that I'd like to have discussions about, and so I'm happy for these to just go on the record and us to look at perhaps in a briefing. The Climate Risk Assessment Report that's just been handed down. It's not cheerful reading. It talks about things that I think that we are all acutely aware of in local government, but it's nice to finally see articulated by another level of government.

So it talks about system strain, which I think we are very well aware of , and also the fact that the changes, and there was a long list of changes, some of which we don't, which I think we haven't focused on because they— They tend to be compounding issues, particularly around heat impacts on outdoor work, for example. That has implications both for our own workforce, but also for the Hawkesbury's productivity and financial capacity. Many of our residents are engaged in trades work, which will be heavily impacted by increasing heat. Loss of biodiversity, impacts on agriculture, and damage to critical infrastructure, something we know only too well. But I think that system strain package is something that we need to explore in more detail.

And also this statement that the changes won't be smooth, that they'll be compounding, cascading and concurrent. And I think we have seen that in the last few years as well. And that compounding issue is something that has hit us hard. So I'd like to see us have a robust discussion about that and how we have our policies and systems in place to set ourselves up for a less painful future than we will otherwise. And then the other thing that I'd like some advice or some information on is how we're handling the growing sovereign citizen movement, particularly with regards to compliance and our frontline staff. It's a discussion that I've had with the management of HRCC, but we have staff who go onto people's properties.

This is something that we need to be across from a governance perspective so that our staff particularly are safe. Thanks.

Thank you. Did you want to address that? Just

In the first part, Councillor, the introduction by the Prime Minister on the weekend in relation to the matter you spoke of, one of the things that was on the hit list was insurance in relation to the problems that you mentioned. And he was talking about Western Sydney, and predominantly Western Sydney. And while the documents he had in his hand related to climate change and the like, the scenery in the background was flooding. So it's across a major part of our city, along with the things that you spoke of. I did mention it to the general manager in our meeting this morning, and I'm sure that when she gets the information, it'll be reported to us in relation to how we might address some of those issues.

Any further discussion?

Councillors and staff, I declare the meeting closed.

Is that turned off, Laurie?

I think we're ready. Sorry.

Thank you, Councillors. We might start this evening. Started by Hawkesbury City Council acknowledges the Darug and Dharawal people as the traditional custodians of the land of the Hawkesbury. We pay respect to all Elders past and present, emerging, and acknowledge all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as First Peoples of the country. Apologies.

Councillor Zembogno.

Councillor Kotlash, I think, is contactors. Councillor Creed and Councillor Veigel has given his apologies. Would someone like to move that way?

Councillor Lyons-Buckett and

Councillor Reardon, thank you. All those in favour? Against? Carried.

Do you want to read out the emergency procedures? Not really. Okay .

Thank you, Councillors. Is there any declarations of interest with matters on the agenda this evening ?

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I'm assuming, considering we're talking about emergency management, if the fire control centre comes up, I'm a member of the Hawkesbury Communications Brigade and I'll fill out a form accordingly.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you. There's no speakers for the meeting this evening. And the item

Before us this evening is

2.1.1, Emergency Management Update.

Is there a staff report? Yep. The report's in the business papers, Councillor, and there is a recommendation. Someone like Councillor McMahon, Councillor Redden.

Is there any questions in relation to the report?

Councillor Lyon-Puckett.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I'd like to thank staff for this material and for bringing us some as well, and for the report being done.

I am interested, though, how we would be monitoring the effectiveness of these strategies. I'm just wondering if there's any sort of evaluation process or anything that goes along with this. Like, we do all these brochures and we put them out. How would we be measuring the effectiveness of any of this?

General Manager.

If you don't mind, Mr Mayor.

Yep.

With regard the Hawkesbury Community Hubs, we average about 27 attendees. Each week at each hub. I'm out in community all the time. I'm attending events. I'm making

Every effort to prepare community for disasters. We've distributed 5,000 grab-and-go bags with emergency checklists, waterproof wallets, and that was funded by the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery Fund, which covered three staff. I'm currently doing that on my own at the moment. The Hi Neighbour campaign we launched at Hawkesbury Show, that was the feedback from community who filled out our inquiry was, what makes a good neighbour? We had over 1,200 people fill that out, and in summary, overwhelming responses were someone who looks out for you and checks on you now and then, kind and friendly and helpful, offers support when needed, always there to help you when you need it, respects your privacy and shares some food sometimes.

The feedback from community was, what a great initiative after COVID, when COVID gave permission for community to actually disconnect. We're trying to get community to connect again, and at the moment, the latest study from the University of New South Wales, University of Sydney, sorry, identifies that 40% of community are saying that they are very lonely. The loneliness is at an epidemic, and it's something that we need to address. And if we're going to, the best way to support community in times of a disaster is to make sure neighbours are connected. It's not going to be an RFS truck or an SES truck that's going to be on your doorstep, and we certainly don't have enough of those in community for that to happen.

So your best bet is your neighbour. So the idea of all this is to get people to connect more. It's okay to say hi to your neighbour. A lot of people said to me they don't want neighbours in their back pocket, but they want to know they're there. They want to know that they'll put the bin out for them if they go away. They want to know they'll feed the dog if they have to go away. They want to know that, especially our older residents, and in remote areas of the LGA, we have a high percentage of older Australians who are extremely vulnerable

So all these initiatives were put in place, and we have community hubs in Colo Heights and St Albans and not so much Wilberforce of being remote, but those community hubs are vital for connecting those communities. They're all run in different ways and in different fashions, and connecting different demographics to support community. If we don't support community, we don't have a good foundation as a race . We need to have community connectedness. So we can actually all have a better life . It's been proven that, particularly for women, the longer they feel lonely, the closer they are to dying, which is extremely sad.

What else can I tell you? The Health and Wellbeing Emergency Handbook was put out in collaboration with Nepean Health, and it's something that's very much needed. It's going out to every doctor, to every chemist. It will go into the hospitals; it's already gone into hospitals. But it's a comprehensive overview of how people can be prepared and what they need to do to be prepared. It also looks at particularly those that are vulnerable in our community and how they can be supported. We have been told by New South Wales RA that the funding is going to flip. It used to be 97% to community and 3% to other things. Now it's going to be the other way. So we really need to make sure that our community are as supported as they can be and have as much information as they can to be self-sufficient.

We also have a recovery on Wheels Network, which has over 180 state, federal, community and NGO organisations that feed in and out of that Recovery on Wheels Network. We used to meet fortnightly; now it's monthly as we're— Not in a disaster or coming out of a disaster. That recovery on Wheels network, I used that to gear up to establish a recovery centre in Wilberforce last year after our moderate flood, and that was established within two days. That network is vital so that we can call on those supports to support our community. And the community were delighted that it was in a community hall close to where the locals live, and it wasn't in an official sort of building. All these are initiatives that we're using to ensure that people are well educated and well informed.

I have had something in my head for a couple of years that I'd really like to start a mobile hub. Get it geared up not so much for people to be in, but to have all the gear that we need so it can be taken out to communities. It can be taken out in times of disaster, so it's geared up with everything that they would need. We can use it as a pop-up, and with this high neighbour, if we can get that getting a lot of traction, I'd really like to be able to take that mobile hub to encourage street parties so that we can go deeper into that community connectedness. It's really important. So, yeah, as far as statistics go, we've got the numbers that come to the hubs. We've got the 5,000 grab-and-go bags.

The cost of the bags are quite high, and so that was Bushfire funding, and that's expired. So I'm limited with the funding I've got, but with what I have got, I really make it. spin out and get the best value that I can out of it.

Thanks very much.

Mr Mayor, could I comment? And thank you so much for that. That's like music to my ears. I love all this work, the connectedness factor of it, and I think you're doing remarkably well if you've got limited funding around doing that. And thank you so much because, of course, you're addressing those multi layers of loneliness and preparedness as well. And I'm really pleased to see that. I'm really glad that you spoke about it also. It's on the public record because I know that it's still only getting to pockets of the community, and I think it's really, really valuable work that Council is doing in this regard. And I hope that it can spread. It's fundamental, of course, with any upcoming disaster that that's in place.

So thank you for providing us the materials, and thank you for that lovely summary. Particularly, I think around the health and wellbeing, going to all the doctors and the chemists and various things is particularly good. And there was something else I wrote down. I don't know where. And particularly, do you have, I don't know how many of you do it, but I'm figuring it's pretty much just you. So congratulations. I think that's a job really well done. Thank you.

Thank you, Councillor.

On page 10, a couple of things that I'd ask the staff. In relation to Transport New South Wales with the video footage and the closure of Yarramundi Bridge at the last minor flood we had, the water didn't actually go over the bridge. They closed it. Can you give us a bit of background on why that happened? Yep.

Pardon me, through you, Mr Mayor. My understanding is that it was actually the lagoon just to the east of the river, which overtopped the small bridge just below Castle Ray Road on Springwood Road. That's what caused the closure of Springwood Road at that point, rather than the bridge being overtopped down at Yarramundi. Or having said that, it did come very, very close. I think it was the water was impacting on the superstructure of the bridge. But it was the localised flows down through that lagoon network that caused the overtopping of Springwood Road there.

Thank you. Just in relation to that location, and I think the camera's really good. A lot of people take advantage of those. They're on the ferries and all that sort of stuff because you can't get to the ferries in some cases and that information. On the eastern side of the bridge, where the sharp bends are as you come out, this most recent rain and the one before it has created landslips that it's getting reasonably close to the bend in that road. Can we have the staff investigate that and see whether there's any action that needs to be taken?

Through you, Mr Mayor. I look at that just about every morning when I come over the bridge. It's one for Transport for New South Wales, and although we haven't raised it with them yet, it's something that is, I guess, I'm monitoring with the river as it rises. The primary scarp, or slip site, is about 20 or 30 metres downstream of the road reserve. But, yeah, as it progresses or it doesn't have a chance to revegetate, we'll certainly raise it with Transport for New South Wales before it becomes an issue.

Thank you. The next stop point was the installation of river height gauges on the McDonald's and Auburns and Colo rivers. With the studies that have been done, that we've done, in relation to those,

The gauges are most important, especially on the [unclear]. It has a big impact on a large section of the community, with very little opportunity to evacuate. They've just got to get up the hill. They can't use the roads. Do you know what the time frame is for the proposed gauges to go in? Because the ones on the McDonald haven't always been operational either.

Yeah. So we've installed two flood gauges, or river gauges, with this funding. So one on the— Bridge over the Putty River, the Putty Road bridge over the— sorry, over the Colo River, and one in St Albans. So both gauges have been installed and commissioned. The St Albans gauge, I understand, is feeding data back to the Bureau of Meteorology. My understanding is that there's some communications issues that the, I think it's Manly Hydraulics, Water New South Wales, Manly Hydraulics, are sorting out with the flood gauge or the river gauge on the Putty Road bridge. We don't have a timeline on when that will be resolved.

Thank you. And lastly, the next stop point that I want to make comment on was the relationship that Rotary and Council had in relation to solar panel signs located on Brennan's Dam Road at Vineyard, Tennyson Road at Tennyson, and Old East Kurrajong Road, Roberts Creek Road. I don't know whether you've seen those, but there's a sign that's illuminated and says, Road closed, and it's activated by the water on the road, and the Council received that information and the like. So one of the frustrations from our staff point of view is that when the roads go under, in some cases, and Tennyson Road is a good example, it's about a 20K round trip just put a sign on the other side. So what seems, someone says, Oh, you're closing the road off, it's not quite that simple.

These signs are automatic, they work terrific, and they're the worst locations in our city. Not the last lot of rain, the rain before it, we had a car going on Tennyson Road. It's dark. You go down the hill across the dip, and if water's across the road, you end up before you know it. So it was really good for Rotary and Council. It was a good project. It worked well. Rotary have certainly beaten their chest, and they need to. It was a good project.

Anybody else?

Councillor?

You hit the wrong button. Sorry.

Just regarding Wilberforce School of Arts and its use as a hub, we really are going to need to address parking at that site. Now we've lost use of the private property next door because it's got a kebab van on it. People are stuck parking on Wilberforce Road. It doesn't have— really doesn't have a shoulder. It certainly doesn't have much accessible space if people have got to walk up to it. So it's a fantastic facility, but we need to have a discussion about making that a more accessible and a safer location for people to park. I'm not sure what the answer is, but we need to find one. Or we're rendering a very large, very useful hall a bit of a white elephant if people can't— and if we're going to use it as an emergency centre or an emergency hub, when we've fed a lot of people out of that hall in successive floods, we can't continue on with a site where people just can't pull over onto the side of the road.

We will have an emergency there if the traffic keeps up as it is on both sides of the road at Wilberforce.

I'm wondering how well we're advertising these hubs. So I suspect that the same people are coming back. It might be worth just doing another round of advertising for the yoga pops up occasionally, but they're not our ads on the Wilberforce and Ebenezer page. It's word of mouth, which is good. It's great that people are so happy with it that they're recommending it. But we could probably do with another round of advertising to get people connected. Wilberforce has a fairly mixed population. There's a lot of people who now work full time, but there are also increasing numbers of older people who would probably really appreciate the connection of some of these, despite not being technically, you know, severely disaster impacted.

I've also started to see some of the bug out bags appear in the backpack section of various op shops, and I wonder, and there are a couple of bucks, is it worth gathering those and refilling them and sending them out again? Is that a cheaper option than, I don't know what was in them to start with, because I didn't ever take one. But is it something that we could fill if we start retrieving some of that already used infrastructure? Thanks.

Thank you, Councillor.

General Manager, in relation to the Wilberforce School of Arts, it's probably properly on both sides. One's badly flood affected, and the other one we have used in the past and there's been implications with that most recently. Could the staff look at the feasibility or opportunity, perhaps that land might be vacant, might be available under circumstances to look at car parking?

Through you, Mr Mayor, yes. Look, we're certainly happy to have a look at it. There is obviously constraints associated with that, and probably the broader question is, is the School of Arts the most suitable facility in Wilberforce for the hub enduring? So, but we can certainly have a look at it.

Thank you. Councillor

Mr Mayor, I was just wondering if we could have an update on the camping at the Upper Colo Reserve, because I know for a long time it wasn't allowable there. If we could just have an update on what's happened, and I see there's something here about the total fire ban signage, but has anything else happened with the amenities or with anything else up there that is different from since the bridge was redone out there?

Through you, Mr Mayor, in terms of the physical assets, there hasn't been anything other than some signage installed to some total fire ban signage. Since we've reopened, we have introduced, which Council would be aware, a caretaker during the open season. Outside of that, it's one of our key actions in the Ignition Prevention Plan, which we contribute to as a member of the Bushfire Management Committee, that we close the reserve and ask campers to leave once a certain fire behaviour index has been reached. When we have flood warnings for the Colo River, so not a—well, certainly for a flood warning, occasionally for a flood watch, we will send out a broadcast SMS to those who have booked and provided a mobile phone contact.

And similarly, we do the same for total fire bans. We've also engaged with, through the district office, the local RFS, who include that on their runs during a total fire ban, which I think there was one total fire ban in January this year where they attended and there were four smouldering campfires. So , yeah, that's the extent of what we've done at the moment.

Are there big numbers of people going there? Are there many people utilising it, or

I don't know the answer to that question. I can certainly find out the numbers that have booked.

Just for interest, really, because it used to be very popular before it was closed down. Thank you. Mr Mayor, I had another question, if I may. With my motion to have this meeting, there was a request that you present to the committee your findings of the floodplain management conference, but I don't want to put you on the spot. I'm happy if you don't want to do it. Oh, you've got it. Okay, fire away. It's not on the agenda, so I thought it wasn't coming. Now I'm excited. Thank you.

Is there any further questions or debate? Right reply, Councillor McMahon.

Oh, you're not going to read out your report?

I'm going to do it after this item. I can do

It now if

You like. Oh

Yeah. Thank you very much. I'll take this as a right reply. If no one else is wanting to contribute, then that's a right reply. Thank you. I'll just make it very short and sweet. But these kind of committee meetings, I think, are important, just to highlight for those listening, or perhaps to put permanently on the public record—surprise, surprise—what I'm going to say, the wonderful work of our staff. So . I think people need to understand something I've said consistently as the mayor, as well in a lot of media interviews when I was the mayor, is how much this area, the Hawkesbury, really is targeted by Mother Nature more than a lot of other council areas. Just with the fires, the floods, and the storms, we really seem to cop it.

For some reason, I don't know if it's a geographic thing, I don't know what it is, but we really do. And if you go back a few years before the Black Summer fires, that really was the starting point for a consistent period of disasters here in the Hawkesbury. So I just wanted to highlight the work that our staff have done over and above what their normal jobs are. I think we are very blessed here in the Hawkesbury to have educated, committed, and passionate staff who actually care about our community, from those who attend council—sorry, community meetings regarding disasters, those who attend and run our hubs, and have made invaluable connections with community members that have made a real lasting impact and difference to the lives of our local residents.

I think that that needs to be put on the record. There is no doubt that here in the Hawkesbury, we have ongoing trauma from our community. I think there is a lot of unhealed trauma from what people have experienced through the fires, the floods, and if they weren't adversely impacted by the floods, they of course might have been cut off from access to the rest of the community, from their employment or their schools. So I think that it's important to say what our staff do. Council gets a negative rap quite a lot in the community, and the positive things get swept under the carpet from what people do to make a contribution or an impact just to one person's life. So I think it's important to say that, as an elected body, we value our staff and what they do to bring a positive name to council and a positive difference to this community.

Thank you.

Well said, Deputy Mayor.

The motion is as the recommendation in the business paper, those in favour? Against? It's carried by the councillors that are here. Just further to the report, I attended the Floodplain Conference on 13th May this year, and I

Highlighted some of the things that I attended in the four days there. There was research into rapid and slow onset flooding in New South Wales and Queensland. These are workshops developing floodplain management plans focused on different management options. They come from all over the country. There was research in flood behaviour and community experiences, developing floodplain management plans. Most of those were attended by probably 50 people in each session . And while there are workshops, all of them make themselves available for questions, usually during, so when an issue comes up, people can ask questions in relation to anything they're talking about, I guess. The theme of the conference was Flood No Boundaries.

One of the workshops provided a hands-on introduction to the Monte Carlo engine that's compatible with the major Australian hydraulic models. One of the other workshops related to levees. One of the longest and effective levees is in Penrith, on South Creek. It's something that I was not aware of, but it's there. There was photographs and information and the like that was there. The reason it was brought up because there's actually trees growing in the levee that make it vulnerable to breakage. There's awareness of the conference. There was an award at the conference for the best project of the year. Last year, 2024, was the Hawkesbury Nepean Floodplain Study, a joint effort by New South Wales Resilient Authority, Realm, Catchment Simulation Solutions and WMA Water.

The project provided critical contemporary flood information of one of the highest risk floodplains in eight local government areas in Western Sydney. That's our river. It was received really well, and there's a lot of work gone into it, and some of you have seen that document. And I have copies of those documents if anyone wants to see them. This year the project was in Western Australia for the new Fitzroy Bridge in the Kimberley region. It was the Project of the Year in the National Engineers Australia Excellence Award for its constructive initiatives in engineering and impact on the community. The old bridge was destroyed in the devastating floods of December 2022 and rebuilt in 11 months.

Until the temporary causeway was completed and the completion of the bridge, there's a distance of just 700 kilometres to get to the other side of the river. Quite a remote area, and a major, major job. The conference was the biggest in most recent times, with just on 500 attendees from all over Australia, as well as representatives from England, New Zealand and the United States. The attendees were predominantly professionals from both council and civil engineering, and the rest made up of elected representatives. I'd like to thank our council staff. One of the presentations was by our staff on our recent flood plans, and that was well received. The conference also allowed me to catch up with two mayors.

Two of those was the Mayor of Lismore and the Mayor of Parks, which I do every time I go there, both who had major infrastructure damage to council's assets caused by recent floods and how they were dealing with those projects financially to bring them back online. The conference was for four days. You could choose up to five sessions on any day. There was many more to choose from. They varied from individual council experiences, overseas representatives, a variety of government authorities and organisations such as the Insurance Council of Australia. Throughout those days, there's business booths, some of you have been to, that offers information and latest technology that may be on offer for flood protection under different scenarios.

I'll just table that as read, and if there's any questions in relation to that, I can make websites available for anyone who wants to look at any of the information. And a lot of the hard copies that were on offer, I have.

Thanks, Mr Mayor. I think I was sorry to miss it this year. I'm just interested, and you won't probably know the answer of this, but maybe the staff know something about it. The South Creek levee, I didn't know the longest levee, is it in New South Wales or in—

I believe that to be

The case. Yeah, okay, the longest levee is on South Creek in Penrith. I'm just wondering if there's been, I know there was a South Creek flood study done in around 2015 or 2016,

Whether there's been any studies done around the impact of that levee diverting the water, because as we know, going into South Creek, there's all the water from the hard surfacing on the Blacktown side. I'm just wondering if there was any discussion of that, because I think we get all that water, of course, down here. And,

Yeah.

I attended that particular session because I'd never heard of it before. The levee protects houses that are very close to the levee from flooding to go back in the streets. I don't know of any study. I'd never heard of the levee before. The studies have been done on South Creek, indeed on the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley. I'd never heard of it. That's why I attended it. And the— That particular seminar never indicated the impact that it may have. It related to the impact that, in relation to the protection it gives those properties that's behind it.

Interesting,

Thanks. Okay, Councillors, I'll just table that document. There's no need to move anything on it. Is there any further

Questions? Councillor?

Thanks, Mr Mayor. And look, some of these are probably for future discussion. One of the things that I was asked a number of times, I have been asked a number of times in the last couple of weeks, it's get ready day for the RFS this Saturday, and a few of the stations have raised with me that they're finding the— it feels like there's additional hoops to jump through, particularly those who want to have a barbecue. So where they would just dig out the barbecue and hose it down, or whatever it is they do with the barbecue, they're having to have food handling certificates and things. They're finding some of this quite onerous for next—obviously it's in four days' time. Could we be a bit mindful of this perhaps for get ready day next year, so that maybe we can have a package or some sort of work that we do with the RFS so that sheds are more ready so that they can run get ready day.

It seems to be proving more onerous this year. I don't know if it's just because they've heard of the rules and are now following them, or when we've not had to before, or I don't know what's changed, but they're finding it troublesome. So if we could be aware of that, that'll be a next year job, I think. And a couple of other things that I'd like to have discussions about, and so I'm happy for these to just go on the record and us to look at perhaps in a briefing. The climate risk assessment report that's just been handed down, it's not cheerful reading. It talks about things that I think that we are all acutely aware of in local government, but it's nice to finally see articulated by another level of government.

So it talks about system strain, which I think we are very well aware of, and also the fact that changes, and there is a long list of changes, some of which we don't, which I think we haven't focused on because they tend to be compounding issues, particularly around heat impacts on outdoor work, for example. That has implications both for our own workforce, but also for the Hawkesbury's productivity and financial capacity. Many of our residents are engaged in trades work, which will be heavily impacted by increasing heat. Loss of biodiversity, impacts on agriculture, and damage to critical infrastructure, something we know only too well. But I think that system strain package is something that we need to explore in more detail.

And also this statement that changes won't be smooth, that they'll be compounding, cascading and concurrent. And I think we have seen that in the last few years as well. And that compounding issue is something that has hit us hard. So I'd like to see us have a robust discussion about that and how we have our policies and systems in place to set ourselves up. for a less painful future than we will otherwise. And then the other thing that I'd like some advice or some information on is how we're handling the growing sovereign citizen movement, particularly with regards to compliance and our frontline staff. It's a discussion that I've had with the management of HRCC, but we have staff who go onto people's properties.

This is something that we need to be across from a governance perspective so that our staff, particularly, are safe. Thanks.

Thank you. Did you want to address that?

Just in the first part, Councillor, the introduction by the Prime Minister on the weekend in relation to the matter you spoke of, one of the things that was on the hit list was insurance in relation to the problems that you mentioned. And he was talking about Western Sydney, and predominantly Western Sydney, and while the documents he had in his hand related to climate change and the like, the scenery in the background was flooding. So it's across a major part of our city, along with the things that you spoke of. I did mention it to the general manager in our meeting this morning, and I'm sure that when she gets the information, it'll be reported to us in relation to how we might address some of those issues.

Any further discussion?

Councillors and staff, I declare the meeting closed.

Is that turned off, Laurie?