Head office relocated
10 February 2010
State Water’s ability to manage flood events across regional NSW will be enhanced by the relocation of its headquarters to Dubbo’s eastern outskirts from 15 February.
As well as being the financial and operational hub for State Water, Dubbo is home to the flood operations response team.
Although the current drought has directed attention away from flooding in the NSW west, flood management through coordinated dam management is a key role of State Water. In times of flooding, an experienced team is pulled together in Dubbo and operates in concert with a team based in Leeton.
Together these groups co-ordinate the operations of dams, weirs and other infrastructure to mitigate the impact of flooding on regional communities from the Qld border to the Murray River. The team works closely with other State Emergency Services in Dubbo and statewide during such events.
A designated flood management team was established at the Dubbo office in 2005 and utilises local knowledge of experienced river operators combined with current real-time technology to remotely monitor storage levels, inflows, releases and flood levels to and from 21 major dams and their receiving streams statewide.
The relocation of State Water’s head office to Commercial Avenue in Dubbo’s Blueridge Estate on the Mitchell Highway from 15 February means the accommodation for the flood team operations would not be as directly affected by events like the 1955 flood in the Macquarie valley, CEO George Warne said today.
"The new location is well away from the Dubbo floodplain. Just as this dry run of seasons has been almost state-wide, our experience dictates that if severe flooding occurs in one area of the state, there is a fair likelihood of simultaneous flooding in other NSW rivers, including the Macquarie,” he said.
"Although the current office building is above the floodplain, we were concerned that any major flooding of the Macquarie River at Dubbo, say similar to the 1955 event, may have restricted access roads to the current Darling Street location, which may impact our ability as the state-wide coordinator to respond locally and elsewhere in New South Wales.”
State Water’s head office contact details, including phone numbers and postal address (PO Box 1018, Dubbo 2830) will be retained at the new location.
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