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Qld flood victims battle for compensation

Cheryl Goodenough and Robyn WuthAAP
The legal battle for compensation over southeast Queensland's 2011 flood disaster continues.
Camera IconThe legal battle for compensation over southeast Queensland's 2011 flood disaster continues. Credit: AAP

The battle for compensation for victims of southeast Queensland's 2011 flood disaster continues, even after a NSW court has ticked off a $440 million settlement.

The Queensland government and state-owned dam operator SunWater agreed in February to settle a class action claim by about 6700 victims whose properties were flooded a decade ago.

That partial settlement was signed off in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.

But the actual figure for individuals is still being explored by the court.

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"Lurking under every rock and tree of this litigation is another issue about damages," Justice Robert Beech-Jones wrote in a judgment handed down on Friday.

The decision related to whether class action members who received money from a Queensland disaster relief fund should get a reduced settlement payment.

Judge Beech-Jones found the relief fund money was paid in recognition of "hardship" and to address "rehousing and recovery needs".

"I found that the circumstances of those payments indicated they were made to alleviate hardship and they were intended to be received by flood victims 'in addition to whatever rights [they] may have to recover'," he added.

"They serve a different purpose to the award of damages.

"They are fundamentally different in nature to the damages awarded."

Seqwater, another state-owned dam operator, is appealing the NSW Supreme Court's 2019 decision that all three parties - Seqwater, Queensland government and SunWater - failed the people of Brisbane and Ipswich and must pay compensation.

Flood engineers failed to correctly manage and follow operating procedures for Wivenhoe and Somerset dams, worsening the downstream inundation, Justice Beech-Jones found in that decision.

In all, about 23,000 homes and businesses went under after huge water releases to make sure the dams did not fail.

Part of the $440 million settlement will go to litigation funder Omni Bridgeway.

The floods case was heard in a NSW court because it was initiated before class actions were allowed in Queensland in 2017.

Seqwater's appeal is expected to begin in the NSW Court of Appeal on May 17.

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