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| 5000 flood victims are taking on Queensland to claw back more than $1billion lost in the 2011 disaster. |
FLOOD-WEARY southeast Queenslanders had to first fight insurers, now they will take on the state to claw back more than $1 billion lost because of the 2011 disaster.
About 5000 people have registered to sue the state government, SunWater and Seqwater over claims too much water was released from Wivenhoe Dam at the peak of the floods to unnecessarily push up the Brisbane and Bremer rivers.
More than two years on, some residents are still picking up the pieces, including Jen Robusto, whose Kenmore home was inundated past the second floor.
Damage to her pool and carpet weren't covered by insurance and she's out of pocket up to $100,000.
"I'm still having drama," she said.
"I haven't been holding my breath for this class action, because disappointment is worse."
Litigation funder IMF Australia and Maurice Blackburn will rely on commissioned modelling that reveals flooding caused by the negligent operation.
The modelling has given IMF the certainty it needed to commit the millions of dollars required for the claim, which will be filed early next year.
IMF Australia executive director John Walker told AAP that lawyers would argue that engineers should have released more water earlier to reduce the peak, and would question why the flood centre was shut between January 2 and 6.
"There was an ongoing flood event. Under the manual they were required to be operating from a flood centre," Mr Walker said.
"Basically the allegation (is) the engineers permitted the dam to get to a level they ought not to have and they should have commenced water through the gates before they did and at greater levels than they did."
Premier Campbell Newman would not say if the government would consider settling.
Instead he offered applicants a warning.
"I just say to them, I hope they have got a very clear deal with the legal firms involved and I'd hate to see any payout to them, if that ultimately happened, being gobbled up in legal fees."
The flood inquiry had found that the engineers - John Tibaldi, Rob Ayre and Terry Malone - had breached the dam manual and it referred them to the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) to examine if they lied under oath and covered their tracks about which water release strategies they adopted.
After a five-month review, the CMC said in August 2012 there was no evidence the engineers colluded to mislead the floods inquiry about how the dam was managed before Brisbane and Ipswich flooded.
In line with the flood inquiry's recommendations, the CMC's probe was limited to documents the engineers prepared about their actions, and their oral testimony.
It did not look at whether their management of the dam's gates during the flood could amount to a criminal offence or official misconduct.
More than 78 per cent of Queensland was declared a disaster zone during the floods in December 2010 and January 2011, which affected more than 2.5 million people.
SunWater and Seqwater have been contacted for comment.
