Some elderly residents evacuated their retirement village, at night after the power was cut, stoically scrambling down blacked-out fire escape stairs with their walking frames.
Key points:Bedridden patients were left in rooms in higher floors for more than 24 hours without electricity before evacuationDeveloper and complex co-owner Justin Harrison says the development met all the requirements when given initial approval from councilResidents will be back in the complex next month after rectification works are completedThey were the lucky ones.
Others who waited until the next day had to be lifted into rubber dinghies and floated out through the flooodwaters by soldiers.
Next door, at the aged care home, flood waters blocked the front stairs and the main wheelchair ramp.
The home’s bedridden patients — some of whom had severe dementia — were left in rooms in the higher floors for more than 24 hours without electricity before they could be evacuated.
That those events unfolded at The Village Yeronga and at the Regis Aged Care home during the recent Brisbane floods raises questions about how the development was ever approved on a flood plain and why it continued to expand, despite flood evacuation issues being raised during the 2011 flood commission of inquiry.
“[The council] allowed more buildings and [put] more people at risk with inappropriate approvals.”
ADF and QAS personnel evacuate elderly residents at Yeronga aged care facility during flooding in Brisbane in March 2022(Supplied: Queensland Ambulance Service)Minutes from a 2006 record of Brisbane City Council’s (BCC) then-planning committee recommended the planning scheme be overridden to build the complex, which consisted of 230 independent living units, a 135-bed care facility and 80 serviced apartments
The minutes record that the only planning committee member who excluded themselves from the process was then-The Gap ward LNP councillor Geraldine Knapp.
Ms Knapp — who retired from council in 2015 — this week said she likely absented herself due to the fact the development was undertaken by her brother-in-law, Michael Harrison, and his nephew, Justin Harrison.
During the pre-lodgement negotiations between the council and the developer’s team, flooding was quickly raised as an issue, with council experts noting the site — which is separated from the Brisbane River by some sporting fields — was affected by both local and backwater flooding from the river.
Despite the issues of overland flow, river flooding and where stormwater connected to drains, the BCC recommended there be “in-principle support” for residential use of the site.
They noted flood issues were addressed by conditions that increased the floor level to the Q100 flood level plus an additional 500mm.
Upgrades were also made to stormwater systems on all four boundaries of the site.
The complex went on to collect numerous awards and was featured in a Brisbane City Council best practice promotional video for senior’s living development.
However, in 2011, nearly the entire site — which, at the time, included two multi-storey independent living, retirement village buildings and the then-under construction aged care home — flooded.
Pictures taken at the time show all but the top corner of the aged care home being flooded.
Then-Village resident Ken Smith raised concerns with the flood commission of inquiry that followed.
He noted that residents were evacuated the day before flood waters rose, impacting the basement car parks and reaching 1 metre into the ground floor of the complex — destroying electrical switchboards and other infrastructure.
Dr Smith called for better evacuation plans and practice drills, although he noted that management did their best during the flood event and provided excellent service.
Rain and floodwater swamped the retirement village at Yeronga in March.(Supplied)History repeatsThis year, as the floodwaters rose across Brisbane, a more unpredictable scenario played out at the village, which did not get water into the living areas but was surrounded and had basements inundated.
The Village Retirement Group’s chief executive, Brett Christ, said the evacuation was delayed by the need for it to be overseen and assisted by emergency services and associated personnel, such as the military.
He confirmed that, due to emergency services dealing with more-urgent issues, they were unable to immediately evacuate the com
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