00:02A freak flood catches a desert town off guard.
00:08Alice Springs woke to find the tod in the Charles Rivers bursting, prompting last minute
00:14emergency warnings of imminent danger.
00:17The kids think it was great because they didn't realise how dangerous it was but I couldn't
00:21drive them out in the car.
00:22It was a lucky escape for the Dardick family after their rented industrial property on
00:27Stuart Highway was swamped.
00:29The moment I opened this door I caused the river to come flowing through.
00:34And they're still counting the cost.
00:36The mess man, the mess was around here, it took me two days just to clean up all the
00:40mess here.
00:41Member for Araluen, Robyn Lambly says the town narrowly avoided disaster and that successive
00:47governments have stalled flood mitigation works in the region because of the cost.
00:52She's appealed to the Northern Territory Government to act.
00:55We can't keep delaying it year after year. As time goes on, it's clear that we are in
01:02for a hell of a flood imminently.
01:05The inaction on flood mitigation is driving up insurance premiums in the area, with some
01:11companies charging eye-watering amounts for cover. Charles Kearns is paying the price.
01:17We're paying over $5,000 in home and contents insurance. We've got a massive excess, which
01:24is $3,000 for our home and $1,500 for our contents.
01:29In years past, she's been quoted $24,000 for home insurance, even though her house is not
01:36in the designated flood zone.
01:38It's a condition of our mortgage that we must have certain insurance. So if it becomes
01:44unaffordable to insure our house, we'll have to sell our house.
01:48In 2017, the Northern Territory Government Alice Springs Flood Mitigation Advisory Committee
01:54released a report which made recommendations to reduce the risk of flooding in the outback
01:59town. It included a review of the drainage infrastructure and building retention basins
02:05in the Todd River catchment to control and slow the flow of water through the town. The
02:10most expensive recommendation was to widen the Todd River course through Heavy Tree Gap and
02:15to raise the Stuart Highway and the Adelaide to Darwin Rail Corridor. But a decade on, nothing
02:22has happened.
02:23There is no other way to get services right through the Territory if this is cut off. So
02:28this is a very important infrastructure piece. It's a national highway. It's very much the responsibility
02:35of the Federal Government.
02:36For residents facing rising premiums, the lack of action is frightening.
02:41It makes me feel sick. Like, I don't, that's not affordable for us and it's really concerning.
02:47In a statement, the Minister for Lands and Planning, Joshua Burgoyne, says he is in discussions
02:52with the Federal Government about flood mitigation in Alice Springs and will return to Canberra
02:57at the end of the month for further meetings.
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