“Our 2022 flood came as a result of the fires in 2019/20, a small flood that year, a year later, a big flood in 2021,” he said.
The chairman of the committee, Walt Secord, visited the damaged Cornwallis Road, which runs along the Hawkesbury River near Windsor, with the committee of inquiry on Friday. He said the “mass destruction” caused by the floods was like facing “a cliff in the middle of the road”.
“This is a big bloody cannon in Sydney,” he said.
“If we had erosion, destruction of this scale east of Sydney or the north coast of Sydney, the state government would have intervened and provided assistance by now.”
Templeman said the road needed to be repaired with a “sense of urgency.”
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Hawkesbury Mayor Patrick Connolly said the council was dealing with $ 60 million in damage to assets after the floods and had hired Public Works Advisory, a state government agency. to direct the repair work on Cornwallis Road.
“PWA is doing a great job, but it’s been a slow process, and that’s what the community is feeling right now,” he said.
A Lower Portland resident said Greens Road, where he lived, had been “wiped out” by the 2021 floods and that repairs had not begun before the road was further damaged in March.
He said disaster response legislation was exposing voters to “prolonged suffering.”
“We are well aware that we live in rural areas, but I have come across disaster relief as a lack of problem solving in many processes.
“It will take time to repair the road properly, it is the management of the previous process [there being] workers in the place which is inexcusable. We have no other way while ours is in the river. “
Hawkesbury Liberal member Robyn Preston agreed that the restoration of the Hawkesbury Riverbank needed “immediate action”. He said the owners wanted a simpler process that would allow them to seek advice on restoring the banks and completing the work themselves.
He said the state government should erect the Warragamba Dam wall, a controversial project that has caused division among NSW cabinet members due to environmental and cultural concerns.
The investigation continues later this month in the NSW Parliament.
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