You cant move the town... so you must make it safe

Keys, C. (1995) presented at the 35th Annual Conference of the Floodplain Management Authorities of NSW, Wellington

There was a time in the history of New South Wales (NSW) when the relocation of flood liable communities was possible: during the nineteenth century Bega, Nowra, Moama and Gundagai were all moved to their present sites after having initially developed on floodplains nearby. In each of these cases, catastrophic flooding was the stimulus for the relocation. The most disastrous experience was Gundagai's; there, in 1852, 89 people of a total population of about 250 were drowned when a flood swept away the town which was then confined largely to the floodplain of the Murrumbidgee River.

This paper examines the evolving role of the State Emergency Service (SES) as a contributor to the floodplain management process. It comments on the organisation's developing involvement in the management of floodplain development and outlines its recent work in the fields of flood planning, the development of flood warning systems and the raising of flood awareness levels in flood liable communities.

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