Major earth and drainage works are underway at Holiday Haven Tourist Park at Lake Tabourie, to be ready to absorb the impact of any wild summer storms.
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To prevent holidaymakers being flooded if an east coast low hits, council committed to a $50 thousand upgrade, which has been in progress for several weeks.
Deluges in January and the previous summer left large sheets of water on the grass in the western camping section of the park with nowhere to drain to.
Holiday makers were ankle deep, with flooded tent sites.
Shoalhaven Tourist Parks Manager Kevin Sullivan signed off on surveys of the main flood-affected areas.
Engineering surveyor Barry Jeffery spent several days mapping the high and low points of Holiday Haven to help plan the flood mitigation works.
That survey data was then mapped and matched with photos of the property from previous floods.
“We’re hoping whatever the summer weather brings, any stormwater will drain away quickly."
- Brenda Rutherford
Jeff and Brenda Rutherford from Helensburg have been coming to the park for 17 years and own an onsite van adjacent the flood prone areas.
So does their friend and neighbour in the park Bev Box who moved to Ulladulla from Canberra.
They’ve watched the work being done in recent weeks.
“We’re hoping whatever the summer weather brings, any stormwater will drain away quickly,” Brenda said.
Nowra businessmen Chance Hanlon and John Keogh and their families camped together on the same sites for six years where a retaining wall has now been built.
They were swamped for two successive summers when the rain hit.
Mr Hanlon is pleased the remediation work is happening.
He sent photos of their families’ and other holidaymakers’ inundated campsites to council and also spoke to senior staff, urging them to reinvest the money council reaps from the park back into adequate infrastructure.
Flood prone sections of the park have been filled with sandy loam that will pack down, grow grass on top and filter water away.
Some roadway and kerbing is being redirected and the pavement levels are being adjusted on others, enabling construction of drainage, swales and stormwater runoffs.
“We will straighten up roads so they form natural drainage channels and lower them in some spots where water builds up, so it can flow away to drainage works undertaken last year,” Mr Sullivan said.
After the recent series of mid-year floods, council workers removed 300 cubic metres of debris that washed into the park.
Two large sections of low-lying grass have been returfed and are looking healthy.
The work is due to be ready before Christmas holidays.
