The recent spate of flooding events and damage is high on the agenda for the Darling Downs and South West (DDSWQ) Council of Mayors’ meeting in Goondiwindi on Friday (July 15).
DDSWQ Council of Mayors’ Chair and Toowoomba Region Mayor Paul Antonio said the meeting would be attended by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority’s (QRA) State Recovery Coordinator Major-General Jake Elwood.
“We welcome the attendance of Major-General Elwood at Friday’s meeting because the recent wet weather has played havoc in just about every area that the DDSWQ Council of Mayors’ represent.
“The ongoing recovery efforts will be a mammoth task for many regions across the Darling Downs and South-West and we will need help from the State.
“It’s important Major-General Elwood understands our issues and the ongoing needs of local government as we recover from as many as four flooding events in some areas.
“The damage to local road networks has been extensive and I’ll certainly be leading the chorus with Major-General Elwood that we need to find ways to build resilience into our local infrastructure to withstand future events through betterment funding.
“There’s little point building back infrastructure at huge cost that simply gets washed away in the next flood and many of the DDSWQ Mayors share that sentiment,” Mayor Antonio said.
Other topics for discussion at Friday’s meeting will include skilled migration programs, the Inland Rail Interface Improvement Program, the South Queensland inland and NSW Border Regional Water Alliance, telecommunications coverage and a pilot program for shared building certification services across council boundaries.
The Council of Mayors (DDSWQ) represents the communities of the Bulloo, Quilpie, Paroo, Murweh, Maranoa, Balonne, Western Downs, Goondiwindi, Southern Downs and Toowoomba regions and shires, covering an area the size of Sweden.
The group represents one quarter of Queensland’s land area and carries around 25% of its cattle stock and produces 75% of its grain and pulse crops.
