How you can prepare for floods


To learn more about what you can do before, during and after floods, please visit the State Emergency Service website.

If a significant flood impacts our municipality, Council will implement its Emergency Management Plan and work with other emergency services to minimise the impacts as much as possible.

Stormwater

Stormwater generally means rainwater that runs off surfaces such as lawns, roads, roofs, car parks, driveways, patios and natural ground surfaces. Under the Urban Drainage Act 2013, runoff water is defined as water which has been concentrated by means of a drain, surface channel, subsoil drain or formed surface. This means runoff generated from natural surfaces, such as grassed lawns and gardens is not regulated by Tasmanian law.

Our Role

We are responsible for maintaining all the public stormwater systems in the municipal area, including public stormwater mains, manholes and pits, and regulating private drainage.

If a property has roof gutters, downpipes, subsoil drains and stormwater drainage that are not connected to our stormwater system, then we may request that it is connected to our stormwater drainage system, if available and practical to do so.

To report an issue with our stormwater infrastructure please get in touch.

Your role

It’s important that residents play a part in keeping our waterways healthy and functioning:

• You must ensure any stormwater within your property from hard areas, including roofs and driveways, is collected and drained appropriately.
• You must maintain any private stormwater system on your property, including downpipes, gutters, private stormwater pipes, and gully pits, in a good operational condition.
• You are not permitted to construct a barrier (dam, levy etc.) that interferes with the natural path of stormwater.
• You are not permitted to divert or change the natural flow of stormwater.
• You are required to control stormwater associated with any construction work which takes place on your property.
• You must keep the natural watercourses and overland flow paths free of debris regardless if there is a drainage easement on your property, and free of obstructions to allow runoff passing through your property in a safe manner and to minimise any potential damage.

Discharging stormwater

Stormwater collected from a property can be discharged by the following points of discharge, subject to our approval. Generally, there is only one discharge point for each lot:

• to a kerb and gutter discharge point
• where the lot falls away from the street and there is a stormwater pipe or similar provided with an approved connection point to a public network, then the property must discharge to that drainage network
• if the above aren’t possible, you can look at disposal onsite (soakage trench) or pressured flow via a pump station. However, these approaches require our approval.

Please note: it is illegal to direct or discharge stormwater onto a neighbouring property.