General News
29 May, 2025
Change to flood gauges
DOUGLAS Shire Council’s access to flood intelligence will not be impacted despite a decision to transfer ownership of two of its rain and river level gauges to the federal government.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and Queensland Government will be responsible for the gauges in the future but the council will enter an agreement with the BoM to ensure access to flood warning information remains available to the disaster management unit.
Douglas Shire Mayor Lisa Scomazzon said the handover of Mossman treatment plant and Rex Creek intake gauges should ultimately improve “flood warning services to our community”.
“The BoM is committed to maintain flood warning assets at the same high standard of their existing network,” she said.
“It’s council expectation the flood warning network will eventually be modernised and become more resilient as a result, helping communities be better prepared during flood events.”
The handover is part of the ‘flood warning infrastructure network’ program which began in Queensland in 2023, with the aim of obtaining and maintaining about a thousand flood warning sites over four years.
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