Minutes from a 2006 record of Brisbane City Council’s planning committee recommended to ignore its own planning scheme and allow 230 independent living units, a 135-bed aged care home and 80 serviced apartments to be built on a flood plain by the Brisbane River in the southern suburb of Yeronga.
The minutes record that the only planning committee member who excluded themselves from the process was LNP councillor Geraldine Knapp. She told the ABC that she likely absented herself due to the fact the development was being undertaken by her brother-in-law, Michael Harrison, and his son, Justin Harrison, owners of The Village Retirement Group.
Despite the issues of overland flow, river flooding and where stormwater connected to drains, Brisbane City Council recommended there be “in-principle support” for residential use of the site, noting measures to reduce flooding.
In 2011, nearly the entire site – which, at the time, included two multi-storey independent living, retirement village buildings and the then-under construction aged care home – flooded.
Then in February this year, Regis Aged Care and The Village Retirement Group’s Yeronga village were again flooded. At the aged care home, flood waters blocked the front stairs and the main wheelchair ramp. The home’s bedridden residents – some of whom had dementia – were left in rooms in the higher floors for more than 24 hours without electricity before they could be evacuated.
At The Village Yeronga, residents had to be carried to dinghies and taken to safety by the Australian Army (pictured).
