Northern NSW floods: Tamworth Regional Council flood risk study reveals potential risk to CBD

A new study has looked at how a lack of underground drainage in East and North Tamworth contributes to stormwater build-ups in the CBD in a one in every two, five, 10, 20, 100 and 200 year flood.

The results, which show a large number of properties west of Brisbane Street would be inundated with floodwaters higher than a metre in a once-in-100-year flood, will inform the city's flood risk plan, Tamworth Regional Council strategy, assets and design manager Graeme McKenzie said.

"An interesting flood risk we have is that the Peel River levee protects the CBD in particular when the river is up," he said.

"We have a pipe drainage system for the CBD that normally flows into the river, but we have flood gates we can close to stop it flowing into the river when it's at a higher level," he said.

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The study showed that when the gates are closed for a long time, the water in the CBD will have nowhere to go - and the levee will act as a dam wall keeping it trapped.

Mr McKenzie said there hasn't been a flood bad enough to create that, but it's "bound to happen".

"When the levee was built and extended there wasn't consideration given to this other form of flooding, so knowing about it is the first part of the puzzle," he said.

Educating the community will be important to stop people making uninformed decisions and putting themselves in harm's way, he said.

"Council's riverine system is designed off flood studies done in the early 1990's for a one-in-100-year plus an extra metre on the levy to provide a buffer," he said.

"But from what I understand, the events on the east coast [like Lismore] are well in excess of that. "If we got that here we would have significant problems all along the Peel, including Tamworth."

The council can apply for government funding to implement solutions.

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