To take action on releases of water In Dams their is a need to anticipate other climatic factors such as the El Nino and La Nina events which starts off South America and take a few days to hit Queensland. More water could have been released earlier and it was not.

The Wivenhoe dam was built after the 1974 disaster. It was designed for fresh water supplies and 70% bigger so as to release water in a flood. Dam management needs a hot line connected to a CSIRO researcher responsible for early warning of when to pull the plug. CSIRO researchers are trained to can anticipate climatic factors such as the El Nino and La Nina events. After all they predicted the current flood years ago

Congratulations are due to whoever found what is now this OLO article, or to whoever, already knowing of its existence and understanding its true significance, made sure that OLO became aware of it.

Roger Pielke makes the concluding observation that:

"While the Queensland flood inquiry will
focus on hydrology and the dam's management,
there will be deeper issues here of decision
making under uncertainty and ignorance, and
how such decisions should be made in the future."

As I understand it, Wivenhoe Dam is managed by a Queensland government corporation, Sun Water. The institution of such corporations seems usually to be undertaken as an intermediate step prior to full privatisation of an erstwhile public utility. The article has noted the inherent conflict between the commercial and public utility interest entailed in maximising water storage in the dam, and maintaining empty space within the structure to hold back what would otherwise be floodwaters during high rainfall events.

I think it is generally accepted that such instruments of government as the Police Force, Armed Services, State Emergency Services, and the like that deal with public safety, are not appropriate entities to ever be 'privatized'. Given the role in flood mitigation that the Wivenhoe Dam was always intended to play, I ask the question as to how is flood mitigation 'privatized'? Flood mitigation is a public safety issue.

So is there not only the issues of decision making under uncertainty and ignorance involved, but an issue as to the very propriety of a government corporate structure for an instrumentality responsible for aspects of public safety? Where public safety is involved, the buck should always stop with the appropriate Minister, should it not?

With respect to the management of Wivenhoe Dam, has the responsibility of government been abdicated in assigning to a government corporation a role that is necessarily one involving conflict of interest between commercial results and public safety?

The article notes a trade off between risks of drought with risks of floods. To what extent did the cancellation of the construction of the Wolfdene Dam in 1990 intensify this conflict of interest?

To my question as to why Governments still lay out millions of tax dollars to frequently inundated islands when rising sea levels are predicted by experts & people who know, one of the bureaucrats in charge replied "it won't happen before I retire in three years".
That particular LG bureaucrat is part of the large group of public servants whose planning ahead goes as far as the time of their collecting taxpayer funded Superannuation. I suspect the planners of Brisbane after the 74 flood were of similar stock.

Forrest Gumpp notes a trade off between risks of drought with risks of floods. To what extent did the cancellation of the construction of the Wolfdene Dam in 1990 intensify this conflict of interest?

Answer. If the Wolfdene Dam had been built in the 1990s it would have increased potential for more water release prior to the flood. I repeat their is a need to anticipate other climatic factors such as the El Nino and La Nina events which starts off South America and take a few days or weeks to hit Queensland. And far more More water could have been released earlier and it was not.

Understand this: CSIRO researchers are trained to anticipate these climatic factors and are able to give warning of when to pull the plug. After all they predicted the current flood years ago and knew the Wolfdene and Wivenhoe dams where both needed. This is the risk management issue that needs addressed by the Inquiry.