Bunnings Plans $60m Flood-Resilient Warehouse

Bunnings Group has lodged plans to demolish its Oxley Bunnings, which was flooded earlier this year, and replace it with a more flood-resilient warehouse.

The site in south-west Brisbane was inundated in 2011, and again in early 2022, and has not reopened since with about 195 staff being displaced.

The hardware giant has now lodged plans with the Brisbane City Council to develop a flood-resilient shed, using its learnings from its Bundamba design to create a raised two-storey warehouse on the site.

According to planning documents, the Bunnings at Oxley would be demolished with new plans to keep parking at ground plane, beneath a two-storey warehouse, creating 210 jobs and providing an overall investment of about $60 million. 

“The existing Bunnings warehouse store located at 32 Blunder Road, Oxley, has been significantly impacted by the recent weather events that caused two significant flood events in less than two months,” the report said.

“It resulted in flooding and the temporary closure of the store.

“The existing Bunnings Warehouse has been closed since the February 2022 flood event, which has impacted on flood recovery for the local community.

“Currently the reopening of a flooded store can take up to four months.

“Bunnigs Group Limited is seeking to replace the existing store to establish a flood resilient Bunnings Warehouse to ensure the continuity of service and trade through major flood events and to maximise the utility of the land.”

▲ Bunnings Group will look to emulate its flood-resilient design at Bundamba, after filing plans to demolish and rebuild its flood-damaged Oxley store.

Bunnings successfully built a flood-resilient store at Bundamba, near Ipswich, west of Brisbane, which was able to reopen 24 hours after flooding this year. 

The proposal is for an elevated Bunnings Warehouse with undercroft car parking.

The existing slab will be demolished to make way for at-grade parking and the warehouse above for an additional 4254.9sq m of retail area and 5078sq m of gross floor area, rising to a height of 15.5m and including 462 carparks.

Flood doors will be installed on the main entry and nursery to ensure only the carpark is inundated in a flood event. 

The redeveloped store is anticipated to be able to reopen within 24 hours of a flood event.