Richard Rowles sees the Brisbane River as a living thing that “breathes in and out two times a day”.<\/p>\n
“It’s got its own character and it changes all the time. When it gets angry, you don’t want to be anywhere near it. But the rest of the time, it’s pretty good,” he says.<\/p>\n
This perspective was shaped by a childhood spent launching off the jetty behind his family’s riverside block in Sherwood, where his Irish ancestors established themselves after arriving in Australia 160 years ago.<\/p>\n
“We grew up here as kids, so we spent a lot of time in canoes, swimming and fishing and shrimping in the river,” he remembers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richard (far left), pictured in the 1970s along the river playing with kids from the neighbourhood. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Richard and his wife Janette passed this lifestyle onto their now-adult sons William and Ollie, whom they raised in the neighbouring suburb of Chelmer.<\/p>\n
Stream Grand Designs Australia on ABC iview<\/a><\/p>\n Architecture Professor Anthony Burke is back with a brand new series of Grand Designs Australia following some truly brave home builders taking on the challenge of a lifetime.<\/p>\n After Richard’s mother died in 2015, leaving the block to him and his brother to divide between them, the couple decided it was time to move back to the place he had first called home.<\/p>\n “Selling Chelmer was really difficult because it was our family home, we raised the kids there,” Janette tells Grand Designs Australia.<\/p>\n “[But] we liked the connection with the fact we come from somewhere and we’re returning to where we came from,” Richard adds.<\/p>\n That’s how the plan for a new build beside a river prone to catastrophic floods took shape.<\/p>\n There was the 1974 event that altered Brisbane forever<\/a>; the deadly 2011 floods<\/a>; and the 2022 deluge<\/a> \u2014 and that’s just in recent memory<\/a>.<\/p>\n The original house on the Rowles family block (pictured) was inundated during the 2011 floods. (Supplied)<\/p>\n Indeed, after the Brisbane River again rose to dangerous levels in 2022 and flooded Richard and Janette’s Sherwood block once more, the builders who had just arrived on site were forced to stop work.<\/p>\n The couple were already used to what Janette describes as the “torture” that is “watching the slow, insidious creep of water \u2026 over a few days”.<\/p>\n Despite the 2022 floods, Richard says the couple decided there was “no turning back” after they sold their Chelmer home.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n But no-one expected a 200-odd-metre stretch of the riverbank to subside in that flood, causing the land to drop down by up to a metre in areas on their block.\u00a0<\/p>\n Architect James Russell says approvals for the project were suddenly retracted, forcing them to redesign the house.<\/p>\n James Russell says a number of houses near Richard and Janette’s block were condemned after the 2022 landslip (pictured). (Supplied)<\/p>\n But, without that 2022 flood, the couple’s riverfront home wouldn’t be quite so resilient.<\/p>\n A house you can hose out<\/p>\n Almost two-and-a-half years of work and upwards of $2 million later, Richard and Janette have ended up with a light-filled house set 11 metres back from the river and almost half a metre above council requirements.<\/p>\n “All the habitable floor levels are well and truly above what the Brisbane City Council sees as the 100-year-plus flood levels,” Russell explains.<\/p>\n The mysterious front screen battens along the exterior of Janette and Richard’s house offer only a hint of what life is like inside. (ABC\/Fremantle Media: Tom Blessing)<\/p>\n Anchored by 26 piers placed 13.5 metres into the earth, Russell’s redesign kept possible future landslips front of mind. He says the house should “have 10 to 20mm movement maximum if the entire bank [were to give] way”.<\/p>\n In case of a record-breaking flood, all valuables are on the upper level and the blockwork undercroft of the house is submersible, with elevated power points and light switches.<\/p>\n In the event of a huge flood, Russell says Richard and Janette might see water rise up to the landscaped courtyard in the centre of the house. (ABC\/Fremantle Media: Tom Blessing)<\/p>\n “The materials are really robust, almost like rock coming out of the ground,” Russell says.<\/p>\n “Some people might find it odd that the power points and switches are up two metres high, but this way the flood can go through and you can let it go down and everything can be hosed out.”<\/p>\n Connecting those spaces to the upper level is a concrete set of stairs that leads to an internal courtyard.<\/p>\n The upper level of Richard and Janette’s house was also built with water-resistant materials.\u00a0 (ABC\/Fremantle Media: Tom Blessing)<\/p>\n Upstairs, 170 water-resistant and removable melamine panels have been screwed to the exposed epoxy-painted steel frame, and heavy-duty ironbark floorboards that could survive days submerged were used throughout the space.<\/p>\n The result is a house Richard and Janette feel safe living in \u2014 even without conventional flood insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n “If you want flood insurance cover in these areas, you’ll pay a fortune \u2014 certainly $30,000 to $40,000 a year, which is a lot of money if you’re going into retirement,” Richard says.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Our opinion is we spent a considerable amount of money on flood ‘insurance’ with the ground engineering and in-ground structure, with the materials used in construction, and the height we built at.”<\/p>\n After the couple explained what they had done with the build to their insurance broker, Richard says they were able to insure their home excluding flood cover.<\/p>\n The future of flood plain living<\/p>\n James Davidson, whose architecture firm helped inform Queensland’s flood resilience framework<\/a>, acknowledges Richard and Janette’s house is “on the big end of town”.<\/p>\n But with 15 years’ experience helping clients improve flood resilience on budgets of $50,000 to $100,000 per home, he says the same principles can be used for any property, “no matter the cost”.<\/p>\n Architect James Davidson says flood-resilient design elements like those used in the Sherwood home buy their residents “some time”. (ABC\/Fremantle Media: Tom Blessing)<\/p>\n “And the cost-benefit is significant. If you put $50,000 into [flood resilience] now, it’ll save incredible amounts of money over time.”<\/p>\n Building and retrofitting for flood resilience:Understand projected flood levelsUse resilient materials up highMove services and switches upChoose non-cavity constructionDitch plasterboardUse concrete, tiled and rendered surfacesRaise houses where possibleTreat pine framing<\/p>\n Whether building a new home or retrofitting, he says the most critical thing to understand is your current and projected flood levels.<\/p>\n “Council adjusts those levels with every new event,” he explains.<\/p>\n “Understand that if you do build to the [current] council flood level, it might go higher next time and you might still be at risk.” People often think making a property more flood-resilient is costly, but Davidson says the materials are affordable and readily available. (ABC\/Fremantle Media: Tom Blessing)<\/p>\n He also recommends using resilient materials above those defined floodlines, as Janette and Richard did, and getting services like air conditioning and hot water units as high as possible.<\/p>\n The same goes for switches and powerpoints, so long as this is accessible.<\/p>\n And where possible, Davidson suggests avoiding cavity construction.<\/p>\n “Cavities cause mould growth and humidity problems,” he explains. “Concrete slabs, tiled and rendered surfaces are good. And when it comes to cabinetry, there are flood-resilient materials.”<\/p>\n Richard and Janette’s hose-out undercroft (pictured), atop which sits an elegant cantilevered steel structure that houses their living spaces. (ABC\/Fremantle Media: Tom Blessing)<\/p>\n When retrofitting, Davidson recommends raising houses wherever possible, using tiles, concrete slabs or hardwood for flooring, ditching plasterboard in the walls and treating any pine framing with mould-resistant paint.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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