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City of Wollongong
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Fairy and Cabbage Tree Creeks Catchment

The Fairy and Cabbage Tree Creeks Catchment covers an area of approximately 21.7 km². It is roughly bounded by Towradgi Road in the north; Crown Street in the south; the Pacific Ocean in the east, and the Illawarra escarpment to the west.

Map of Fairy and Cabbage Tree Creeks Catchment PDF, 2864.62 KB

The Central Area Floodplain Committee provides advice to Council about issues in the Fairy and Cabbage Tree Creeks Catchment area.

Council completed the Fairy and Cabbage Tree Creeks Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan dated August 2024 for this catchment.

The study was jointly funded by Council and NSW Government and was prepared in accordance with the NSW Government’s Flood Risk Management Manual and the Australian Rainfall and Runoff 2019 guidelines.

The study provides the most up to date information on flooding for this catchment. The study also identified flood risk across the catchment, investigated various options and recommended a range of flood mitigation measures.

The Fairy and Cabbage Tree Creeks Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan dated August 2024 includes the updated version of the Flood Study (2020) with ARR19 guidelines. The study also supersedes previous Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan from 2009.

The current Floodplain Risk Management Study and Plan (2024) including reports and model results are available to download from NSW Flood Data Portal using the link below.

Fairy & Cabbage Tree Creeks FRMS&P 2024 - Flood Projects - NSW Flood Data Portal

Debris Control Structures

13 debris control structures have been built in this catchment. Some have been built by Council, and others by Transport for NSW. Other debris control structures are being reviewed in the ongoing Flood Risk Management Study and Plan.

McMahons Street detention basin

We’ve engaged a consultant to design a detention basin to reduce downstream flood levels. Detailed designs and construction will be done at a later date to be advised.

Keiraville Public School floodway

Our studies suggest that a floodway at Keiraville Public School could help to reduce flooding downstream. More investigation is needed to confirm how this would impact the school and the environment, and whether it would be cost effective.

Hopewood Crescent culvert upgrade

We looked into creating a culvert on Hopewood Crescent to reduce downstream flood levels. However, we would need to buy three properties for this to go ahead. The costs are not viable at the moment so this project is on hold.

Dawson Street culvert upgrade

An investigation found that upsizing the culvert at this location results in little overall benefit except for very frequent events. Because of this, the concept of increasing the capacity of the culvert was not supported. However, it was also found that the roadway is currently under significant flood hazard.

Council is investigating options to install flood warning measures at this location under a city-wide approach for managing flood risk on the roads.

Voluntary Purchase

We bought and cleared 25 high flood risk properties in this catchment after the August 1998 flood.

You can help our research and planning for floods in this catchment by sharing your past experiences.

If you have photos or other information about flooding on your property, please contact us.

You can view flood study documents for this catchment on the NSW Flood Data Portal: