Report on roads not good as region counts the cost of deluge

RURAL roads in Townsville have sustained a significant amount of damage from the February deluge, the council has been told.

But a final assessment is still to be made as council officers warn it takes weeks for the full extent of any damage to become apparent and for infra- structure such as road pavement to settle from possible undermining.

The council’s infrastructure committee was provided with an update on disaster relief arrangements at its meeting on Tuesday.

“We have done an initial look at rural roads. There’s a significant amount of damage on the first look,” a council infrastructure officer said.

Mayor Jenny Hill told the meeting the city’s roads appeared to have held up reasonably well but warned that changes to disaster relief arrangements by the Federal Government meant ratepayers were more exposed to the cost of damage from disasters such as cyclones and storms.

“Federal Government changes to the Natural Disaster Recovery and Relief Arrangements really puts Queensland on the back foot,” Cr Hill said.

“We are the most decentralised state and we bear the brunt of a lot of significant events.

“There will be in future a real impact on ratepayers.”

Cr Hill said the Federal Government was yet to pay the State Gov- ernment for damage from the impact of Cyclone Debbie last year.

The council was told the Federal Disaster Relief Scheme and separate State Disaster Relief Arrangements would apply to February’s rain event in Townsville and that more than $ 1 million worth of damage to public infrastructure had to occur for relief arrangements to be triggered.