KORUNYE seed farming siblings Irene and Richard Verner will push for compensation following a report which indicates a railway line caused significant flood damage to their property last year.
In October, flooding along the Light, Gawler and Wakefield rivers caused more than $50 million in damage to properties on the northern Adelaide Plains.
Floodwaters peaked for 16 hours, with the three-metre-high railway embankment, owned by Australian Rail Track Corporation, creating a “wall” for the water.
Ms Verner said her brother was lucky to save the family home and seed business.
“The design standard of the railway is for a one in 100-year flood, but it can’t even get past a one in 10-year flood,” she said. “Historical data shows these floods occur once every 10 years.”
Australian Water Environments reviewed the flood behaviour of the Light River and its impacts on the Verner property, discovering substantially undersized culverts and determined the railway line prevented natural drainage.
The Light River is a perched river system with natural levees forming the banks on either side of the river.
Once the water surpasses the banks, it naturally finds its way to the coast following the terrain of the land.
But AWE says an exception to the flow pattern occurred at the railway line adjacent to Mallala Road, where the flow was impeded and pooled behind the railway line.
“The railway line creates a substantial barrier to the natural flow path,” it said.
Site inspections also confirmed culverts were significantly undersized, causing additional pooling of water to the east of the railway line and exacerbating flooding on the Verner property.
Ms Verner said the report confirmed what she already knew from her experiences and recorded local history.
“We would just like the water to flow where it wants to flow,” she said. “We want bigger, better-placed culverts that don’t impair the natural floodwaters.”
But ARTC has disputed the findings and said it was not consulted during the report development.
“We don’t know what other stakeholders were consulted, whether flow-on impacts from other infrastructure was considered, surrounding development impacts over time, whether risk assessments considering landowners downstream were made and so on,” an ARTC spokesperson said.
Ms Verner said the railway line, which was opened in 1917, was due to undergo standard upgrades.
But ARTC said there was no infrastructure upgrades planned at this stage.
“It is true that the rail infrastructure has been around for some time, but it remains in good condition and continues to service daily interstate train operations safely and reliably,” the spokesperson said.
