Victims of the 2011 Brisbane floods have started receiving part of the $450 million settlement won in a class action against dam operator SunWater and the state of Queensland.
In November 2019, the Supreme Court in New South Wales found flood engineers operating the Wivenhoe and Somerset Dams in Queensland were negligent and failed to follow the manual they had helped draft.
While the court ruled in favour of the negligence claim against the Queensland government of the day, as well as Seqwater and SunWater, other aspects of the case failed.
The class action alleged the dam operators failed to follow their own manual and did not make enough room for heavy rainfall until it was too late, heightening flood levels and damaging more properties.
Maurice Blackburn lawyer Rebecca Gilsenan told ABC Radio Brisbane's Steve Austin some of the almost 7,000 claimants had received an interim payment.
She said the total payout would not be distributed until all legal matters associated with the case were finalised.
That could take until the end of this year or early 2023.
"We are releasing partial payments now so people can get something," Ms Gilsenan said.
"We've paid about 300 people so far and we are paying on a rolling basis — when people accept their loss assessment, we can pay them."
Maurice Blackburn developed a settlement scheme which informed how the money would be distributed among the claimants and took into account their location and the damage sustained.
Ms Gilsenan said most people accepted their assessment and wanted to "move through the process".
"There are a small number of people who have appealed and asked us to look at that assessment again and we've done that," she said.
"They're only ever going to get half of what they lost, at most, because we only settled half the case, half the case we lost, so I can understand why some people are angry.
"But more than 95 per cent understand and accept what's being allocated."
Describing the initial payouts as a "conservative amount", Ms Gilsenan said most were valued at just several thousand dollars.
She acknowledged the decade-long legal process was too long and left victims without a sense of closure for many years.
Insurers to receive payouts
Ms Gilsenan said some insurers were entitled to a payout as well.
She said some members of the class action were brought in by their insurers who wanted to recoup money they had paid out.
"Like individuals, insurers paid out in a instance where there was a wrongdoer who ended up settling, so they're entitled to a portion of that as well," Ms Gilsenan said.
"If you've got a house and a car and both of those were significantly damaged in the floods, and your car might not have comprehensive insurance but your house does ... sometimes we've got claims brought by the group member and the insurer together for both of the parts they've footed the bill for."
Experience will never be forgotten
Lynette Lynch's Fernvale home flooded to the ceiling in 2011 and she lost everything.
She described the end of the court battle as a relief.
"We are finally getting closure on all of this and it won't be in the back of our mind so much. It's been very stressful and for so many people it's been awful," Ms Lynch said.
"We never got paid by our insurer. We took it to the ombudsman and even then you only get a percentage of your claim.
Since the inundation, Ms Lynch said she could only afford insurance premiums if she underinsured her home.
"It was a brick exterior, the brick stayed there, but it had to be Gernied [high water-pressure cleaned] and Gernied and Gernied," she said.
"The walls and the doors had to be removed and we had to slowly rebuild. I had a cottage out the back of my home so it was a double rebuild.
The flood event may have been 11 years ago now but Ms Lynch said some people would "never get past it".
"Some people suffer really badly," she said.
"They just relive that day over and over, and when they got back in their homes all their possessions were destroyed. The loss is too great.
