The victims of Queensland's devastating 2011 floods are partly to blame for damage to their properties because they didn't do enough to protect them and are guilty of "contributory negligence", dam operators claim.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Details of Seqwater's defence of a class-action suit came to light during the first week of a trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court, where law firm Maurice Blackburn is representing about 6000 victims of the 2011 deluge.
It is alleged the Wivenhoe Dam operator failed to follow its own manual and should have taken into account rainfall forecasts before making extraordinary water releases, which caused extensive flooding in Brisbane, Ipswich and the surrounding areas.
Lead clients Vince and Maria Rodriguez, whose Fairfield Gardens business had to close after it lost $100,000 worth of stock, should have known their store was leased in a shopping centre that was build on land that flooded in 1974, the court heard on Thursday.
Fairfield Gardens shopping centre received developer approval in 1985 and the council noted the previous decade's flood at the time, Nicholas Owens SC for the plaintiffs said.
"They (Seqwater) say that if someone had asked the Brisbane City Council, these matters could have been discovered," Mr Owens told the court.
However, the family did not move to Australia from El Salvador until 1991 and the 1974 flood preceded the construction of Wivenhoe Dam.
Mr Owens said it was "a contention we struggle to understand".
"It is in a sense trite that one thing the plaintiffs and group members did not know and could not reasonably have been expected to know is that the defendants would negligently operate the dam," he said.
Seqwater also accuses other victims of not doing enough to protect their properties.
Lynette Lynch, another lead client, spent months mopping up the muddy aftermath at her home in Fernvale, much closer to the dam.
Mr Owens said Seqwater contended she, too, should have known the land on which she built her house flooded in both 1893 and 1974.
"It also contends she was guilty of contributory negligence in not doing enough to help herself before the flood," he said.
Ms Lynch says she received no warning before she had to evacuate on January 11 that year.
She made frantic attempts to remove belongings and gather her dogs, but on the evening of January 11 the water was rising at "an alarming rate", Mr Owens said.
"It was rising so quickly that as she drove up the hill, her car was being lifted and moved around by the water," he said.
"It's impossible to imagine that she could reasonably have thought she should have stayed even a second longer."
She returned to her ruined property the following day and it took a team of eight people weeks to clean up the mess.
Mr and Mrs Rodriguez closed their business permanently in June 2015 after it never fully recovered from the financial hit.
Seqwater insists its engineers will be vindicated because they did the very best they could in extremely challenging circumstances.
The trial, before Justice Robert Beech-Jones, continues on Thursday.
AAP
