The Queensland government sold land in Townsville's flood plain 'black zone' for housing

The state government has been selling off land for new housing smack-bang in the middle of Townsville's "black zone", which was evacuated during flooding in February. 

Property records show homes have also been built following sales of land from a golf club in another black zone area.

A number of blocks have been sold with homes built — some with added flood mitigation measures such as elevated embankments — since the 2019 swamping of areas in Townsville.

Some of the new properties had earlier been marked on council maps as being at high risk of flooding.

The development goes to the dilemma facing wider Australia in a housing crisis: whether homes should be built in flood plains.

An ABC investigation reviewed emergency zones, town planning changes, property records and flood maps, and interviewed key figures to examine the problem.

One argument was that being too risk-averse and stopping development on areas with minimal risk would severely limit available housing stock. 

But others said developing on land susceptible to inundation was a recurring problem.

"If we keep repeating the mistakes of the past, building homes on areas that are well-known to be flood-prone, those are going to be homes that are going to be the hardest to insure," Insurance Council of Australia chief executive Andrew Hall told the ABC.

Leave now warning for residents

North Queensland was in the downpour danger zone again in February.

Flood fears wracked Townsville, although it ultimately dodged a bullet.

Authorities issued a "black zone" evacuation warning for parts of six suburbs including Rosslea and Oonoonba, on a bend of the Ross River, saying "heavy intense rainfall may lead to dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding" in some areas.

"Flooding to second-storey floors is possible. Single-storey buildings could be fully flooded. It may become too dangerous for emergency services to rescue you," the warning said.

Among black zone areas was a large parcel of state-owned land that was formerly a cattle research station, and now features chunks of green scrub.

The then ALP Bligh state government in 2010 turned the land into a residential zone under a state instrument.

Now it's full of modern-looking single-story homes with white and grey walls. 

They are built on slabs and packed into small lots.

One aim was for cheaper housing — 50 per cent below the average price for other Townsville homes.

Les Tyrell, Townsville mayor from 2008 to 2012, told the ABC: "The council did express concern about drainage and flooding."

Development there proceeded over the years with relatively cheap blocks of land being sold.

One source with knowledge of the development said after the massive 2019 floods smashed Townsville, a decision was made against proceeding with some proposed expansions.

Still, property records show new lot sales and builds have occurred since then too, including at least seven homes marked high flood risk on council databases.

One home's rental advertisement highlighted its design for disabled people: the tenant uses an NDIS-support service.

Some homes have flood resilience measures, such as elevated land or a slab rising off the ground.

The office for the new LNP minister for state development, Jarrod Bleijie, did not answer questions about land sales, which occurred under the previous administration.

His office said in "priority development areas", including the one in question, the state government "replaces local government as the assessment authority, delivering development in accordance with needs of the region".

Over the river

To the west on the other side of the brown river were new developments from land sold by a nearby golf club. They were also in the black evacuation zone.

Some residences initially created in that residential development were inundated in the 2019 flood.

Since then, more new homes have been created. There are signs of additional mitigation work to avoid flooding — land has been lifted and the area's engineering consultants from Stantec told clients that it helped create a "robust platform that elevates the site" above risk levels of a 1-in-100-year flood for new allotments.

Neither the club, nor the property development company also hired as consultants, would comment.

Government records show council in 2010 gave preliminary approval to the project. The then council planning chair was current premier David Crisafulli. His office did not answer queries.

Locals living in or on the edge of the black zones in the two developments had mixed outlooks.

Teri Ho, living in the golf course estate, would purchase again. "This is a really lovely place," she said from her backyard.

Ms Ho said her family had been wary of the flooding risk. But she lifts her arm to show how the developer told them the land had been raised, and the family received permission to build a higher slab.

Bernie Hartmann, a former mine worker who lives on the golf estate, was overseas when the black zone evacuation order blared. "It was pretty scary," he said. Their neighbours relayed information that their place, which had flooded under its previous owner in 2019, remained safe.

He likes his home — it boasts a freshly mowed backyard and garage with pristine cars — and he was happy with how council had managed events in the latest flood. Some locals also maintained a chain of events had caused 2019's local flooding, and sounded reassured this would not happen again.

But Bec Stockwell, who rents a home on the former state government land, which went under in 2019 with a previous tenant, baulks at the notion of purchasing there. 

"Now that it's [flooding] happened almost twice — I was looking, but I'm not doing it, no, no way," she said.

Another home owner on former state land, who did not wish to use his name because of work, expressed regret.

Sources with knowledge of developments said once council approved a project, it would be legally fraught to remove the ability of someone to build a property. Property developers could also theoretically sue if council refused a project that met local government requirements.

Houses designed for Queensland

Jenny Hill, mayor from 2012 to 2024 and a longer-term councillor, questioned building new homes on a golf course and said she held concerns at the time. "Golf courses always flood," she said.

She argued more needed to be done with design — such as having homes built on stumps in the city. 

"Why are we building a property that's not designed for the wet weather we have up here?" she told the ABC.

Her predecessor, Mr Tyrell, pointed to the dilemma of avoiding any flood risk at all, even if only minuscule, saying it would drastically restrict available land.

He said people could build homes to mitigate for flood conditions, and engineer sites so they could handle a 1-in-100-year flood risk. People could also "consider the risk", Mr Tyrell said.

The council did not answer queries.

Queensland's flooded-housing dilemma lies in history.

Hubert Chanson, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Queensland with expertise in floods and hydraulics, said developments in parts of the state had historically been around freshwater systems and their flood plains.

Developments had expanded on flood plains as people since then looked to live or expand business areas near those cities. 

"It is a combination of necessity and potentially greediness," he said.

But he added a problem was that Queensland has extraordinarily large inundation and "very flat flood plains".

The university's testing area has large-scale models of road bridges in open boxes. Professor Chanson opens up a valve for water to gush through and demonstrate which better shunts flood water.

He also has ideas for homes — citing the traditional Queenslander house on stumps — and developing flood resilience.

Other measures such as raising land levels for individual homes could assist, but Professor Chanson added the impact of water subsequently flowing elsewhere had to be considered.

Development industry sources argued lifting homes instead of building on slabs could add significant costs to projects, and there would be a building industry skill shortage if people tried to build large-scale developments on stilts. Moving earth was easier. "It's cheaper for them to butcher the land," one developer told the ABC.

The Insurance Council's Mr Hall said the industry association was examining the latest flooding risk.

"We know that there are a lot of areas that suffered from flood impact in Townsville in the last event (2019) which have seen no improvement since that event," he said.

"We need to learn again from the extent of this flood, and understand that it will repeat, and that it could repeat at a much higher level next time."