Flood Management
Flood Big Ideas is big. Huge!
Stage one community consultation | Now closed
Flood Big Ideas is perhaps one of the biggest flood projects ever. Council is investigating large-scale flood infrastructure that, if built, could reduce flooding in our City by up to 66cm.
Community consultation opened in late-November 2025 and closed 30 January 2026. There were three concept designs to review, one for North Rocks, Toogabbie, and the Parramatta CBD, with advantages and disadvantages for each.
Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the three big ideas for improvements to our large-scale flood infrastructure.
We’re committed to working with the community every step of the way to deliver detailed designs for Flood Big Ideas. We’ll keep the community informed on the preferred concept design, business case and funding, through to construction and completion.
City of Parramatta will review all submissions and develop the preferred option to detailed design stage.
Council will need to seek additional funding to progress the preferred design and begin construction.
Follow the project on Participate Parramatta and stay tuned for further updates.
Three big ideas to reduce flooding in our City
Tens of thousands of people and businesses in our community are exposed to flooding, with the associated inconvenience, risks to life, and damage to homes and infrastructure.
To ensure a safe and resilient Parramatta, we’re committed to reducing the impact of flooding in the Parramatta CBD and in surrounding areas.
Why Flood Big Ideas? Is flooding a big deal?
Parramatta is one of the most flash-flooded cities in the state. The Parramatta River currently breaks its banks five times a year. Additionally, there are flash flooding events around our city that cause significant damage and disruption.
Modelling shows a major flood could harm people and cause up to $250 million in damages.
Should the biggest flood that modelling shows could happen take place, more than 25 per cent of the City of Parramatta would be covered in flood water. The risks to our community would be high, and the flood could create hundreds of millions of dollars in damages (maybe more).
Flood Big Ideas
The City of Parramatta is investing in new solutions to better protect people, homes, businesses, and essential services.
Council’s Flood Big Ideas project is investigating upgrades to large-scale flood infrastructure that will significantly reduce flooding.
After reviewing 14 options, we’ve selected the best three (3) concept designs for the community to consider:
- Enhancing the existing Loyalty Road Flood Detention Basin, North Rocks
- Upgrading the existing McCoy Park Flood Detention Basin, Toongabbie
- Rebuilding Charles Street Weir, relocating a pipe beneath the Barry Wilde Bridge, Parramatta CBD, and removing the existing footbridge underneath Barry Wilde Bridge.
Big Ideas - a National Emergency Management Agency Grant
Funding win to support flooding risk investigations in the Parramatta CBD
City of Parramatta has secured $250K in Australian Government funding for a series of flood investigations in the CBD. The funding, provided by a National Emergency Management Agency grant, will be matched by Council.
The $500K will be directed towards development of design options to reduce flooding along the Parramatta River. The project will investigate modifying existing infrastructure, and/or designing and constructing new infrastructure, to reduce flooding.
Across the LGA, many communities are regularly confronted by flash flooding. The highly urbanised environment - with diminishing green areas to absorb and slow water - and increasing areas of hard-stand such as roads, paths and highly-developed areas impervious to water, make managing flooding difficult.
Tens of thousands of people and businesses are exposed to flooding, with risks to life and to infrastructure.
The Disaster Ready Fund project will look to flood mitigation within the Parramatta CBD, also upstream and potentially downstream of the CBD, with a view to providing new flood infrastructure in areas attracting rapid growth.
Project aims
- Investigate the optimum size and design of flood infrastructure including drainage, diversion, flood detention basins, and levees
- Investigate if the proposed flood infrastructure can reduce flooding in areas downstream of the Parramatta CBD as well as upstream of the CBD and within the CBD
- Produce concept designs for the preferred infrastructure options and cost these options
- Produce detailed designs for preferred infrastructure options and cost construction and completion of works.
The project is scheduled to begin in late-2024. Subject to the development of the program and appointment of specialist consultants, design options are planned to be placed on public exhibition in late-2025.
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Funding
Announced by Australian Government Minister for Emergency Management, Jenny McAllister in late-2024, this funding is part of a long-term commitment to enhance Australia's capacity to respond, adapt and recover from natural disasters by investing up to $1 billion over the next five years in resilience initiatives across the country.
For more information about the Disaster Ready Fund and the National Emergency Management Agency, please visit the NEMA website.
See the official website Disaster Ready Fund | National Emergency Management Agency (nema.gov.au) and scroll down to Disaster Ready Fund Round Two NSW.
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Further information:
For information on Flood Big Ideas (Disaster Resilience project), please email the project team via catchment@cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au or contact City of Parramatta on 1300 617 058.