Three workshops are being held as part of a process to develop a draft Community Coastal Flood Emergency Plan. Each workshop will provide different information and will seek community input about different aspects. Residents or landowners along the Goolwa and Mundoo Channels are the people who will be most affected by predicted coastal flooding in this area. They are the people that know the area best and Council would like them to be involved in the preparation of the plan. 

A Community Coastal Flood Emergency Plan is a plan that outlines the actions a community can take before, during and after coastal flood events to help reduce the likelihood and consequences of emergencies on people, their properties, local infrastructure, and the environment. This plan will provide our community with information about coastal flood risks so we can all make informed decisions about what to do when flooding occurs. For more information, please read the Project Fact Sheet.

The 2021 Coastal Adaptation Study found that the land along the lower Goolwa Channel and the Mundoo Channel are two areas in the Council area most at risk from coastal flooding due to their low elevation and direct exposure to the sea and tides.   The Study showed that there are many houses in the Goolwa Channel and Mundoo Channel settlements that may experience flood waters over the floor levels of their houses during coastal flood events under current conditions. Areas upstream of the barrages are not exposed to coastal flooding as the barrages prevent tidal impacts from reaching these areas.

Residents, landowners, business operators, Council and emergency services are all invited to the workshops as they will all be affected by flooding in the Goolwa and Mundoo Channel areas, and will all have a role to play before, during and after flooding.

Workshop 1 will:

• Provide information about why a community emergency management plan is needed
• Describe the coastal flood risks to people, their properties, local infrastructure, and the environment
• Ask attendees to identify local characteristics and together think about how these might help or hinder in an emergency situation.
• Understand the community’s experiences with flooding.

Workshop 2 will:

• Share information about the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders before, during and after a flood event
• Consider how well prepared the community is now for flood events
• Identify what the community could do to prepare for flood events
• Identify what the Community Coastal Flood Emergency Plan for these communities needs to cover.

Workshop 3 will:

• Present the draft Community Coastal Flood Emergency Plan
• Present an approach for household emergency management planning and help residents prepare their own plan.

All of the workshops will run for two (2) hours and will be held at Centenary Hall, 14 Cadell Street Goolwa. 

Workshop 1 - Thursday 8 February, 6pm – 8pm

Workshop 2 - Thursday 29 February, 6pm – 8pm

Workshop 3 - Thursday 11 April, 6pm – 8pm

Please register for each of the workshops.

Each workshop will provide different information about emergency planning and will ask you different questions.  The plan will be most useful to the community if as many community members as possible can attend all three workshops.

We encourage community members to attend in person. However, should you be unavailable, the slides from the presentations will be available on the project page following each workshop.

No.   Given the complex inter-governmental arrangements governing the management of the barrages, assessing the possible impacts of sea level rise on the barrage is well outside the scope of Council’s role. 

In partnership with adjacent Councils, Alexandrina has long advocated, and will continue to advocate, to State and Federal Government in support of a comprehensive climate change adaptation planning process for the wider Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth region.   

The Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has undertaken the Lower Lakes Independent Science Review which identified knowledge needs to plan for the main social, environmental and economic vulnerabilities of the Lower Lakes in regard to climate change.  You can find out more about this review on the MDBA website.