New South Wales, 22 February onwards

Flooding
From late February to early April, New South Wales experienced catastrophic flooding. River systems from the Queensland border to the south coast as well as inland areas flooded. In some areas, flooding was to a scale that had never been seen before. The Wilsons River at Lismore reached a height of 14.4 m, which is 2m above previous records.

The flooding was large scale and difficult to predict. For example, two days before the Wilsons River reached 14.4 m, the Bureau of Meteorology had forecast minor to moderate flooding. In over 50 days of flood operations, New South Wales State Emergency Service (NSW SES) responded to 33,421 requests for assistance, including more than 2,200 flood rescue activations. Tragically, 13 lives were lost and 4,055 properties were deemed uninhabitable as a result of flooding. Over 5,600 members of the NSW SES responded to the event, supported by interagency, interstate and Australian Defence Force resources.

In March, the New South Wales Government commissioned an independent expert inquiry into the preparation for, causes of, response to and recovery from the catastrophic flood event across the state.

Situation/Weather Systems 

Leading into 2022, many catchments in New South Wales were full and soils were saturated. This was due to a La Niña event in March 2021 that led to widespread flooding. The Bureau of Meteorology declared a second La Niña Event for Australia in September. Commencing in November, NSW SES responded to 109 consecutive days of flooding in large parts of western New South Wales resulting from rain in northwest New South Wales and inland Queensland.

From 22 February, a low-pressure system across northern NSW and southern Queensland produced heavy to torrential rainfall over the NSW coastline. This was followed by two more weeks of persistent coastal rainfall, including the development of two East Coast Lows (ECL), leading to flash and riverine flooding in numerous locations.

The heavy rainfall began in southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales during the last week of February and continued further south into eastern New South Wales in March. Multi-day rainfall records were broken across south east Queensland and north east New South Wales, with multiple sites recording over 1 m (1,000 mm) of rainfall. For the last week of February, rainfall across parts of the region was at least 2.5 times the February average, with some parts experiencing more than 5 times the average. For north east New South Wales this was the wettest week since 1900. More than 50 locations in south east Queensland and north east New South Wales recorded more than 1 m of rain in the week ending 1 March.

In the first week of March, the rainfall system shifted south along the New South Wales coast, bringing further heavy rainfall to eastern parts of the state. The Hawkesbury-Nepean catchment recorded its wettest 9-day period on record to 9 March.

Flooding

The intense and sustained rainfall across the region led to flash flooding and riverine flooding extending from Maryborough in Queensland to Grafton in New South Wales. Many of these communities also experienced flooding in 2021. With multiple weather systems impacting the state, some communities experienced two floods between February and April.

Multiple communities in the Northern Rivers area experienced unprecedented flooding, with records broken by considerable margins. Devastating flooding occurred in Lismore, which experienced two floods in the space of a few weeks. The levee at Lismore overtopped both times, inundating the town on each occasion. The township of Woodburn was also inundated. Other towns experiencing significant flooding were Coraki,
Murwillumbah and Tumbulgum.

In the Northern Rivers area several rivers reached a peak record height:

  • Wilsons River in Lismore peaked at a height over 14.4 m, which is 2.12 m above the previous record set in 1890.
  • Tweed River in Murwillumbah peaked at 6.51 m, which is 0.31 m higher than the previous record set in 2017.
  • Tweed River in Tumbulgum peaked at 4.77 m, which is 0.86 m higher than the previous record set in 2017.
  • Richmond River in Casino peaked at 16.49 m, which is 0.28 m higher than the previous record set in 2008.
  • Richmond River in Coraki peaked at 7.65 m, which is 0.64 m higher than previous record set in 1974.
  • Richmond River in the Bungawalyn Junction peaked at 23 m, which is 1.48 m higher than the previous record set in 1974.
  • Richmond River in Woodburn peaked at 7.17 m which is almost 1.8 m higher than the previous record set in 1954.
  • Brunswick River in Mullumbimby peaked at 4.98 m which is 0.30 m higher than the previous record set in 1987.

At the outset of this weather system the Warragamba Dam, Sydney’s main water storage, was already at 98%. The heavy rain and spilling from the dam resulted in moderate to major flooding along the Hawkesbury-Nepean river system. With the ongoing rain over a number of weeks some areas experienced two peaks during the one flood. The 2022 flood levels on this river system exceeded those of March 2021 and were comparable to those of 1978. The Nepean River at Menangle Bridge peaked at 15.92 m, more than 3 m higher than March 2021. The Hawkesbury River at Windsor peaked at 13.8 m, nearly 1 m above the March 2021 level; while at Portland it peaked at 8.64 m, almost 1 m above the 2021, 1978 and 1964 flood levels.

During the same period, moderate to major flooding also occurred in the central and north coast areas of the state, including the Manning, Macleay, and Hunter rivers. Major flooding on the Hunter River at Singleton peaked at 13.15 m, exceeding March 2021 flood levels by nearly 1 m.

Response activities and resources 

With the scale of the weather events and associated flooding, multiple areas of operations and Incident Management Teams (IMTs) were established to coordinate response activities. The State Command Centre was also activated to facilitate resourcing, planning, intelligence, and public information in support of the IMTs. The State Emergency Operations Centre and various other emergency operations centres were also operating.

Over 50 days of flood operations, the NSW SES responded to 33,421 requests for assistance, including over 2,200 flood rescue activations. More than 72,000 calls were received at the State Operations Centre. More than 5,600 members of the NSW SES (staff and volunteers) responded to the event. This equates to over 489,000 personnel hours.

Communication with the public was a critical element of the NSW SES role during the floods. NSW SES issued over 500 evacuation related products and over 1,500 flood bulletins. The NSW SES webpage was visited 3.75 million times and the NSW SES Facebook page reached over four million people.
NSW SES was supported in response efforts by personnel from NSW Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW Ambulance, NSW Volunteer Rescue Association, NSW Police Force, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Marine Rescue NSW, Surf Life Saving NSW, Service NSW, and Resilience NSW.

Over 785 personnel were sourced through the AFAC National Resource Sharing Centre to assist with flood operations in NSW. Assistance was provided from every state and territory. The Australian Defence Force supported response activities at a local level through Defence Assistance to the Civilian Community Level 1 (DACC1); and with wider support through DACC 2 requests. Support included aviation assets, high clearance vehicles and personnel.

Impact on communities 

The flooding significantly impacted multiple local government areas along the east coast of NSW, including Ballina, Kyogle, Bellingen, Lismore, Byron, Richmond Valley, Clarence Valley, Tweed, Singleton, Central Coast, Upper Hunter, Maitland, Port Stephens, Northern Beaches, Sutherland, Liverpool, Penrith, Fairfield, Hawkesbury, Canterbury Bankstown, Georges River, Bayside, Hornsby, Camden, Blacktown, The Hills, Wollondilly, Wollongong, and Shellharbour. Multiple communities in the Northern Rivers area experienced unprecedented flooding, with Lismore being one of the most heavily impacted communities. The township of Woodburn was also inundated.

During the Lismore flooding on 28 February, there were 2,823 properties impacted by flood waters. This resulted in 1,900 requests for assistance to NSW SES, including 862 flood rescue activations. Many flood rescues were carried out by the “Tinny Army” – the local community providing assistance to fellow residents.

All flooded communities experienced power and telecommunication outages, some lasting several days. Significant damage was caused to roads and other infrastructure in flooded communities across the state. For many residents and local governments, repairs for the damage that occurred as a result of the 2021 floods had only recently been completed. The second round of flooding in late March impacted many residents who had just completed the clean up from the flooding earlier in the month.

The 2022 flooding event tragically claimed the lives of 13 people. This included one person on the Central Coast, six people in the Northern Rivers area, four people in the Sydney area, one person in Broken Hill and one person near Grafton. 21,170 properties were impacted by the flooding. Of these, 8,108 were inundated, 10,849 damaged and 4,055 assessed as uninhabitable.

Relief and Recovery 

Natural Disaster Declarations were made by the New South Wales Government for 62 local government areas impacted by flooding. This provided affected communities and individuals with a range of special assistance measures including access to financial assistance.

The Australian Defence Force provided a range of support services to the response and relief effort, assisting with damage assessments, helping householders and property owners to commence the recovery effort by cleaning out homes and businesses and moving debris in many locations.

Recovery centres were established in numerous communities. These centres provide residents with face-to-face access to a range of government services, support, and advice to assist with recovery from the flooding.

In early March 2022, the New South Wales Government appointed New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon as Northern New South Wales Recovery Coordinator to coordinate the large-scale multi-agency clean up and recovery processes required to assist the many communities impacted by the unprecedented flooding in the Northern Rivers area.

On 1 June the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) estimated that the catastrophic flooding that devastated southeast Queensland and northern NSW was the fourth most expensive disaster in Australia’s history, with a total cost of $4.3 billion. However, the ICA estimated that the actual damage bill was likely to be significantly higher, with many residents not insured due to the cost of flood cover.

Lismore City Council, in its own report of the floods, estimated more than $350 million worth of damage to council assets, with a repair bill for roads and bridges alone of $200 million. The report indicated that the cost of rebuilding the broader community would be close to $1 billion.