The Floodplain Management Association, which represents more than 80 councils, authorities and businesses involved in flood risk management, said governments have shied away from mitigation measures that include levees.

“Australia suffers over $400 million worth of flood damage each year on average but the state and federal governments allocate less than $20 million per year in funding to manage the flood problem,” chairman of the FMA, Cr Ian Dinham said.

He said levees such as the one in Wagga Wagga save millions of dollars in flood damages but are “almost impossible to get government assistance for”.

“We need to reduce the massive impact of flooding on the public purse by allocating sufficient funds to protect properties from flood damage and plan future development in a more sustainable way,” Cr Dinham said.

Maitland City Council, a member of the FMA, was one of the first to develop a flood mitigation scheme following the 1955 floods and is currently reviewing a separate Flood Plain Risk Management Plan.

Its manager of assets, Chris McGrath, said the city’s mitigation scheme “is one of the most thought-out ever built”.

“We agree more funding should be dedicated to disasters, floods especially, and events in Queensland and more recently NSW have shown that but we understand the limitations on the federal and state government,” Mr McGrath said.

He is in agreement with Maitland flood historian Peter Bogan who

said that although the Maitland levee and spillways haven’t been tested against a one in 100 year flood they have fared well against one in 20 year floods.

“What we have at the present time is the best designed, best implemented flood mitigation measures in Australia, but they’ve never been completely tested yet,” Mr Bogan said.