Figtree residents who witnessed the aftermath of Saturday's raging flood, which ripped an Airbnb cabin off its foundations and into the creek at the back of their homes, say they fear more development in the area could make flooding worse in the future.
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As he helped with the clean up on Koloona Avenue, nearby Valley Drive resident Paul Wright said the disaster - which caused the creek to break its banks and flow into backyards and homes - had been "living proof of what could happen".
Residents in the area have been fighting to stop extra homes being built on the land above Byarong Creek for years.
Last week, they met with the Land and Environment Court Commissioner at the site bounded by Valley Drive and Terrie Avenue, with the court overseeing conciliation hearings between developers and the council regarding a plan to increase the number of approved new lots from 22 to 51.
"On Thursday, it was a the first part of a conciliation hearing with the Land and Environment Court," Mr Wright said.
He said the on site meeting was a chance to speak directly to the commissioner about their concerns, which includes the fears about increasing floods and inundation.
"Residents spoke about their lived experience with the impacts of the development on inundation of their properties through sedimentation in the drains and blockages of the drainage infrastructure," he said.
"We had two big flood events in 2022, one in March and one in April, which were pretty significant events and some houses in Valley Drive, down slope of the development area were impacted directly by the stormwater system not being able to deal with that one."
Two days later, when 200mm of rain fell in 24 hours - including 100mm in one hour between five and six am, when the cabin was picked up by flood waters.
""We are just worried that the current system is inadequate and overflowing, so if you put in another 50 homes and concrete and roofs and then you're going to exacerbate an already overwhelmed system," Mr wright said.
"Saturday was living proof of what could happen.
"Obviously you can't blame the flood events on that development, but I think the point that the community is very keen to make is that the system is already overloaded."
"You can't put more pressure on it."
Minister for the Illawarra and Keira MP Ryan Park says the priority now must be the clean up, and getting help for residents affected by these latest floods.
However, he also flagged that the city will need to look at where is appropriate for development.
"Over the course of the weeks and months ahead, there will be time to assess where properties are built in the future [and] what planning challenges we may have to face going forward," he told media on Monday.
"I think we do have to be mindful of where we live as well, and there are challenges that we can't necessarily foresee, and that is that we live between the mountains, a steep escarpment, and the ocean.
"That means water travels through here very, very quickly. That is the challenge about where some people have located and where people have property and businesses now.
"We love where we live for those reasons... but during very heavy rainfall, like we saw over the last 48 hours, that's a challenge as well in terms of mitigating that."
Mr Wright said Saturday's disaster would have more residents asking questions about future development.
"If the drains do get overloaded with the sediment and the intensity and speed that the water drains off the escarpment is increased, then where's the responsibility of the houses are inundated?" he said
Aside from the flooding issues, Mr Wright said Saturday's disaster had also highlighted the importance of new developments having enough access roads for emergency services.
"Those roads are very narrow and so the concern is that they'll become through roads and they're very steep, very narrow roads," he said.
"In an emergency, when you're trying to get people out quick as we saw on the weekend with bridges and roads being cut and access being limited, it makes it very hard.
"We had the SES trying to get to one of the houses with their roof collapsed - so this shows that those sort of issues are very real and frightening."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
