FAQs

The major towns that are located around the Shoalhaven River are Nowra, Bomaderry, Berry, Terara, Greenwell Point, Culburra Beach, Orient Point and Shoalhaven Heads.

The Shoalhaven River has a catchment of approximately 7,250 km² and is the sixth largest coastal catchment in NSW. The river rises some 50 kilometres inland of Moruya and follows a generally northerly direction for some 170 kilometres to Tallowa Dam where it is joined by the Kangaroo River from the north. The river then flows east for a further 90 kilometres past Nowra and is joined by Nowra and Browns Creeks, Bomaderry Creek and Broughton Creek in its lower reaches. The Shoalhaven River flows into the Tasman Sea along with the Crookhaven River at Crookhaven Heads and through an intermittently open and closed entrance at Shoalhaven Heads.

A flood study is a technical project that identifies flood behaviour such as depth, velocity and extent across the floodplain for a wide range of flood events. It aims to provide an understanding of the full range of flood behaviour and their consequences in the study area. It involves consideration of the local flood history, available flood data, and the development of hydrologic (rainfall and runoff estimations) and hydraulic (motion of stormwater runoff) models. Where possible, models are calibrated and verified against historic flood events and then extrapolated to estimate the full range of potential flood events.

A Floodplain Risk Management Study utilises the flood intelligence developed in a flood study to investigate possible mitigation options to reduce flood damage (impacts) and to manage flood risk. It allows for testing and investigating practical, feasible and economic management measures, including structural and non-structural measures, to treat existing, future and residual flood risk. The Floodplain Risk Management Study will provide a basis for informing the development of a Floodplain Risk Management Plan. 

The Floodplain Risk Management Plan will document the decisions on the management of flood risk within the floodplain into the future. The Plan will outline a range of measures to manage risk effectively and efficiently, using the investigations undertaken as part of the Floodplain Risk Management Study. This will include a prioritised implementation strategy, which will detail how measures should be implemented.

The objective of this study is to better inform flood risk management for property owners and publicly managed community assets. The overall goal is to increase community safety while mitigating damages from flooding to private and public assets. 

This study will create flood intelligence for the NSW SES to plan and respond to flood events, develop an implementation plan for flood mitigation measures within the floodplain, and provide information to the community to improve their resilience during flood events.