North Creek Flood Study

A flood study is a comprehensive technical investigation of flood behaviour that will provide the main technical foundation for the development of a future floodplain risk management study and plan for the catchment.

The study will aim to provide an understanding of the full range of flood behaviour and flood events for the North Creek catchment study area. It involves consideration of the localised flood history, available collected flood data, and the development of hydrologic and hydraulic models.

The outputs of the study should assist Council by providing a better understanding of:

• flood behaviour, flood hazard and flood risk in the study area
• defining hazard areas and producing probability flood level information to assist Council with future developments in Warners Bay
• impacts and costs for a range of flood events or risks on the existing and future community
• impacts of changes in development and climate change on flood risk
• emergency response requirements for the study area
• effectiveness of current management measures
• facilitating information sharing on flood risk with the Warners Bay community
• understanding future flood scenarios incorporating climate change.

North Creek has a catchment area of 5.3 square kilometres and flows into Lake Macquarie at Warners Bay.

The North Creek catchment incorporates residential development (50 per cent), non-residential development (10 per cent, largely schools and commercial/light industrial), open space and forested areas (40 per cent).

The creek has two main tributaries, the western and eastern tributaries. Each of these has a sub-branch, Seaman Avenue on the western tributary, and the King Street and Lakelands branches on the eastern tributary.

North Creek Flood Study area

Council has engaged specialist consultant WMAwater to undertake the North Creek Flood Study.

Yes, this flood study will build on the work already completed as part of the 2005 North Creek Flood Study and 2010 North Creek Floodplain Risk Management Study.

Your experiences, flooding information, photos and videos will help to inform the flood study. It is important for us to gather as much information as possible, especially from local residents, property owners and businesses, about the history of how the areas close to North Creek are affected by flooding.

The consultants will combine all of the community information, experiences, photos and videos of flooding history in these areas with results from flood modelling technology to develop the updated flood study.

Flooding of roads and residential areas within the North Creek catchment has occurred on several occasions in living memory, the most notable being June 1949, February 1990, June 2007 and April 2015.