Case studies

A coordinated inter-agency approach has restored critical rail and road links between north-west Queensland and the east coast.

The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) completed works to improve the resilience of Isabella Creek Bridge on Endeavour Valley Road, in time for the 2020-21 wet season.

Given the severe damage to the Flinders Highway and other key transport routes following the North and Far North Queensland Monsoon Trough event, Transport and Main Roads (TMR) made north western Queensland the focus of its 2019 Betterment Program.

The benefit of investing to improve the resilience of key Queensland transport routes is paying off, with Burke Developmental Road in the state's north-west successfully withstanding significant rainfall during the 2021 wet season.

After extensive flood damage repairs, Alice River Bridge reopened in late June 2019 – two months earlier than expected – followed by the completion of works in early July.

Following the North Queensland Monsoon Trough 2019, the Department of Environment and Science approved $46 million in projects to support environmental recovery after the event.

Gullies are common across northern Australia, where the wet season sends huge amounts of water moving over land, as was the case during the 2019 monsoon trough floods.

Surface water flowing in a line over inadequate groundcover scours soil, forming a channel that can come to be many metres deep.

Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council’s Buddabaddo Road has had eight locations of the road upgraded with 25 metres concrete pavements as well as concrete margins to increase the road’s resilience to natural disasters.

One of Townsville City Council’s betterment projects to increase their road network’s resilience to natural disasters has already been put through its ‘paces’.

Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council’s Wallaby Point Road received more than $800,000 in betterment funding to concrete and raise a section of Wallaby Point Road and to upgrade culverts.