Hawkesbury's Year of Floods

2022 saw the most significant and widespread flooding experienced by the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley in almost 50 years. The flooding characteristic within the Valley is unique within Australia, arising in the floodplain being one of the deepest in the nation. With five individual major flood peaks across 2022, the cumulative impact on Council's emergency management response was the most significant ever experienced and provided an opportunity to contrast the experiences in 2019-20 (bushfires) and 2021 (floods). Similarly, the impact on infrastructure has been immense with an estimated damage bill of $240m for roads and related structures alone. This paper explores some of the key observations, experiences and lessons learned in respect of emergency management and also examines three significant infrastructure failures - road, bridge and flood mitigation structure - and how we could change the paradigm to deliver far better outcomes for our communities with respect to their resilience through resilient infrastructure. *Publication of papers represents the opinion of author and does not necessarily represent the position of IPWEA NSW & ACT.