At home with disaster

As the impact of climate change intensifies, today's property buyers need to keep an eye on the future

- NICOLA FIELD

As a kid growing up in Sydney's northwest, we often used to waterski on the Hawkesbury River. The drive to Windsor took us through areas that often flooded after heavy rain. No matter - at the time it was mostly open farmland.

Fast-forward to 2022 and the Hawkesbury area has grown up. Newly built homes in the river's surrounding suburbs often command million-dollar price tags.

The nature of the neighbourhood has certainly changed. But the lie of the land has not. Flooding still occurs in the area, though it's not impacting empty paddocks anymore. In March, residents around the Hawkesbury, including relatively elevated areas like McGraths Hill, were ordered to evacuate as Greater Sydney experienced a devastating “rain bomb”.

The Insurance Council of Australia says the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley has the highest single flood exposure in NSW, if not Australia. That's because the river doesn't fan out as it approaches the coast. Instead it's hemmed in by sandstone gorges that trap and hold rapidly rising water.

This hasn't stopped residents buying in the region - or more land being released for development.

Today, the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley includes some of the nation's fastest-growing local government areas including Penrith City, home to 200,000 people.

It's easy to say residents who were inundated by the March floods should have been aware of the risks. However, Angus Raine, executive chairman of the Raine & Horne Property Group, says: “No matter how much due diligence a buyer undertakes, you can never account for a one-in-100-year event. And some of the floods we saw in March 2022 were impacting areas that hadn't experienced flooding since the 1800s."