Residents clean up after downpour

Mick Hallett and Gavin Du Plessis find Moore Park’s drainage system is inadequate.

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Queensland rain and floods

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MICK Hallett wanted to live on the picturesque Lagoon Drive when he moved to Moore Park Beach, not in an actual lagoon.

With heavy rain his dream home turns into a disaster zone.

Water swamps his yard, laps up to his front door and seeps into his home. Mr Hallett believes he is the victim of a poorly designed and inadequate storm water drainage system.

With rain of three inches or more his home resembles the namesake of its street address.

“It’s leaving a bad taste in my mouth and a bad smell all through my carpet,” he said.

Mr Hallett said while recent rain had been abnormally heavy, sudden downpours were enough to force him outside with sandbags and a broom to protect his home.

His home has been sandbagged twice in the past two weeks and his yard was yesterday pumped by a rural fire brigade unit.

“This is a tropical region and we’re going to get seasonal rains,” he said.

“I don’t want to have to get into disaster mode every time we have a downpour.”

Bundaberg Regional Council mayor Lorraine Pyefinch said the geography of Moore Park Beach made drainage an ongoing problem.

In the wake of recent rain and flooding council has lowered the town’s creek levy wall to try and lower the water table.

“Right across the district we have examples of subdivisions approved that may have met the standards of the day but are not acceptable now,” Cr Pyefinch said.

Emergency services worked to protect homes in Bundaberg, Walkervale and Moore Park Beach from rising floodwaters on Saturday.

Workers evacuated a Yandaran resident from a home isolated by floodwaters and fixed a tarpaulin to a badly leaking roof in South Kolan on Sunday.