As floodwaters surged into her Redfern home, Jacqui knew just what to do

3 weeks ago 4

Jacqui Duncan was concerned when the rain started thumping down last Wednesday, but it was the sound of moving wheelie bins that alarmed her. She had been here before.

“I know that sound is because water is moving at a fast enough pace to dislodge them,” the renter from Sydney’s inner-city suburb of Redfern said. “The bins started floating, and I immediately started trying to barricade my door, but there’s just nothing you can do when the water moves in so quickly.”

Jacqui Duncan has been forced to relocate while four humidifiers work to absorb the stormwater that entered her home.

Because stormwater had already gushed into her home in 2024, Duncan shot into action. She waded through knee-high black stormwater to take video evidence of her and neighbours’ claims: that road operator company, Transurban, was pumping water down their street from the Eastern Distributor.

“You don’t see water running down the street like rapids, and that’s what it was. It was lifting 20 to 30 kilogram planter boxes and floating them 30 metres down the street. It wasn’t a normal flooding event. The rain has subsided, and the water is gushing through. I’m just glad that no one’s child was walking home.”

When Duncan and other furious residents on the Redfern side of the Eastern Distributor demanded an explanation for the flash flooding, a bureaucratic blame game between council, state government, and Transurban, who runs the tollway, erupted over who was responsible.

Now, residents are seeking to launch a class action for answers.

Video from the night shows the “surcharging event” of stormwater gushing out of drainage grates at the top of the Eastern Distributor, pouring down South Dowling Street, and spilling into Charles and Mount streets in Redfern.

Duncan, said a friend who watched the footage thought she was caught in the Bali floods. “They actually said, ‘What, this actually happens in Sydney?’”

Now, she has four humidifiers running day and night in her home and mud lining the inside of her wooden kitchen cabinets.

The City of Sydney claims the surcharging event from the Eastern Distributor caused the flooding. Transurban – which operates the Eastern Distributor on behalf of Transport for NSW – denies this and said the flooding was caused by the Greater Sydney Parklands.

Inside the mud-lined kitchen cabinets of resident Jeff Hart, whose terrace was also flooded last Wednesday.

A decade ago, a council planning document stated Transport for NSW was responsible for Eastern Distributor pumps but when asked about the flooding this week, the agency and Greater Sydney Parklands directed responsibility back to Transurban.

However, Transurban denied it was their fault.

“The significant rain event last week resulted in material impacts to people, businesses and property across Sydney … We did not pump any water from the Eastern Distributor onto local roads,” a Transurban spokeswoman said on Thursday.

“Last week’s exceptional weather event caused excessive stormwater runoff to flow from Moore Park, which resulted in the flooding of a stormwater retention basin, which we do not operate or maintain.”

Resident Michael Charley said the deluge was the worst he’s ever seen. He claims his home has flooded four times in the past 18 months because of stormwater being surcharged by the Eastern Distributor.

Michael Charley’s latest insurance claim exceeds $100,000 worth of damage. He is worried his insurance will revoke his flood coverage.

“It’s just an ongoing threat to our financial position. I’m expecting our insurance company might now increase our premiums each flood event,” Charley said. “Emotionally, for residents like myself and my wife, we can’t live under the constant threat that after a heavy rainfall event, we’re going to be flooded because of the actions of Transurban.”

The City of Sydney said residents first raised the alarm about flood issues last year, prompting the council to upgrade drainage pits along the street going down into the Alexandria Canal.

“We understand this issue is likely to have been caused by a surcharge of the Eastern Distributor drainage system and will raise the matter with the NSW government,” a spokesperson for the council said.

“Surcharging is a hydraulic issue and may not register as an asset failure as nothing is physically broken … A road like Charles Street in Redfern is located in a low-lying area, which means it has a greater likelihood of flooding than other streets in higher areas.”

Jeff Hart’s terrace house in Redfern is one of a number of houses that were flooded during Sydney’s recent heavy rains.

Transurban denied similar claims from a flood last year, with residents claiming they demanded video evidence of the surcharging event.

“Last year, we contacted the City of Sydney, and they were in contact with Transurban about these surcharging events, but at that point, we had no video or photographic evidence of the events happening, and Transurban denied ever pumping water out at the location,” Charley said.

“But this event last Thursday was the most severe flood we’ve had since 2012, and a resident was able to film the water being pumped from the Eastern Distributor tunnel infrastructure … hopefully to get some action from Transurban or Transport for NSW to stop these events happening again.”

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