19 April 2024

NSW Flood Recovery Program for Land-based Clean-up Program

In response to previous years' severe flooding events, the NSW EPA executed a Land-based Clean-up Program (the Program), engaging MRA as a specialist flood debris clean- up consultants to assess flood-impacted sites, engage with Program applicants and other stakeholders and coordinate debris removal.

Severe storm and flooding events in March 2021, February-March 2022 and June-July 2022 caused significant damage to properties and the environment along the NSW coast. The flooding generated a substantial amount of debris on public and private land that presented a risk to the environment and human health.

In response, the NSW EPA executed a Land-based Clean-up Program, with MRA Consulting Group (MRA) as Project Manager, to assess flood-impacted sites, engage with applicants (private landowners, cane farmers, local councils) and other stakeholders, and coordinate contractors to remove flood debris from flood-affected areas.

MRA delivered:

Program coordination for the Public Lands Program, the Private Lands Program and the Cane Farms Program
Preparation of 3 NSW flood project management plans
Close to 3,000 flood debris assessments across private and public land sites
Clean up of 1,500 tonnes of debris from 835 eligible clean-up sites
Design of a Power BI dashboard to report visually on all assessed and eligible sites
Implementation of a customer service system for logging and tracking applications and queries
Completion of 3 regional clean up reports for the North-Upper Coast, North-Mid Coast and Greater Sydney regions
Writing and design of a short summary report and comprehensive program report for the EPA

The Program was delivered using funding from the joint Australian and NSW Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. It was the first Program of its kind in NSW.

Full report available on the NSW EPA website.