Brisbane City Council to hold own flood review

BRISBANE City Council will undertake an independent review of its handling of the flood disaster.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman announced today that former Queensland governor Peter Arnison, Robert Gotterson, QC, and Emeritus Professor Colin Apelt will be on the review panel.

Cr Newman said the panel would have access to independent consultant engineers and would be able to request further technical experts.

"This review board will ... be entitled to speak to any council officer and view any relevant document, email or phone record," he said in a statement.

"The board will also conduct interviews with flood-affected people in Brisbane to gain a community perspective."

The review will examine existing planning regulations in flood-prone areas, effectiveness of public warnings and flood prevention and stormwater infrastructure. The board will also investigate the council's dealings with other agencies such as the Bureau of Meteorology, SEQ Water Grid Manager, emergency authorities and utility service providers such as Telstra, Energex and Queensland Urban Utilities.

The panel will report back by early May.

Meanwhile, a week of high tides culminating in a king tide has provided a headache for residents and business owners in flood-prone Brisbane suburbs.

The king tide peaked at 1.75 metres at 10.30am (AEST) inundating homes and business in low-lying streets at Albion, Milton, Hemmant, Ransome, Newstead and Herston.

By noon it had dropped to about 1.5m.

A spokeswoman for Cr Newman told AAP the king tide was 70 centimetres higher than yesterday's high tide.

"There was no serious damage," she said.

At the Albion Park Paceway track, racing manager Sharon Darlington told AAP she hoped the water swamping the trainers' car park had receded by the time the greyhounds kicked off race one in the early afternoon.

"It's just the car park, it won't affect the race meeting at all," she said.

Ms Darlington said the track had flooded during the Brisbane River peak last week.

Mechanics at the Delta Taxi Management workshop a few streets away had an extended lunch break after the king tide disrupted their repair work.

Operations manager David Webb told AAP the continuing flooding was frustrating.

"I'm having to pay all these people for nothing," he said.

"It's cost us $200,000 in business, we have been only able to work half-days."