Chas Keys
Chas Keys is a former academic and emergency management practitioner. He was from 1997 to 2004 the Deputy Director General of the NSW State Emergency Service, with responsibility for planning to warn and evacuate people from approaching floods. Chas writes occasionally about the politics, culture and ethics of cricket.
Chas's recent articles
28 March 2025
Are we losing the battle against urban development on floodplains?
After two recent bouts of flooding already this year in Far North Queensland and more in the south-east of the state and in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, the perennial matter of our use of floodplains is in the news once more. Specifically, the issue of building houses on flood-liable land has come to public attention again.
30 January 2025
John Howard and British colonisation of Australia
Humphrey McQueen (Pearls and Irritations, ‘The lucky Aborigines’ 26 January 2025), has reminded us of John Howard’s opinion that “the luckiest thing that happened to this country was being colonised by the British. Not that they were perfect by any means, but they were infinitely more successful and beneficent than other European colonisers.”
23 January 2025
Extreme events, causation and politics
Climate Politics: Causation can be complex, often multi-layered, multi-faceted and with links between its elements. In the context of weather-related disasters, it has to be attributed with great care, and in recognition of the complicated thing that is the environment whether natural or human. And we need to note the motives of those who attribute causation; they can quickly politicise events and condition people’s views as to what underlies those events.
6 July 2024
Afghanistan women’s cricket team seeks recognition
Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan almost three years ago, women’s sport has been cast into darkness there.
29 June 2024
Afghanistan’s underdogs upsetting the established order
One of the charms of sport is seeing underdogs upsetting the established order by overcoming teams they seemingly have no chance of beating. All sports have examples of such upsets. Long-term realities about relative strengths can fall in the short run. Ah, the glorious uncertainty of sport!
2 March 2024
Lord Botham and discrimination in cricket
Responses to the report of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (Holding up a Mirror to Cricket) commissioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board, continue to reverberate months after its release in mid-2023.
29 February 2024
The Great Lismore Flood: Revisiting the use of floodplains
Last week saw the release of the NSW State Disaster Mitigation Plan which outlines a blueprint for managing future disasters; this week marks the second anniversary of the great flood at Lismore and places downstream in the Richmond River valley. This is a moment to ask how we are going in NSW as far as the future management of floods is concerned.
18 November 2023
In praise of Afghanistans cricketers
Much has been written about the International Cricket Councils World Cup competition being played in India, but relatively few of the words have been about the incredible achievements of the Afghanistan team. Against a backdrop of poverty, war, political turbulence and natural disasters, the team performed magnificently.
3 July 2023
On inclusivity in English and Australian cricket
Last week, English cricket was hit by a bombshell in the form of a report entitled Holding Up a Mirror to Cricket. Commissioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board, the report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) found that the game in the land of its origin was riven by racism, sexism, elitism and class-based discrimination.
17 June 2023
Cricket and ethics: Always more to do
Cricket has always had a difficult relationship with ethics and integrity. This is notwithstanding two things: the games pride in the saying Its not cricket to describe anything unfair, and the inclusion in the games Laws of a Preamble called The Spirit of Cricket to guide player behaviour.
24 May 2023
Flood warning: full potential not achieved
The recent announcement by federal ministers Tanya Plibersek (Environment) and Murray Watt (Emergency Management) of substantial investment in upgrading the nations flood warning gauge network is welcome.But gauging is only part of the problem of flood warning: there is another element which is not routinely well recognised in flood management circles.
17 May 2023
Flood warning: upgrade gauging networks, focus on warning messages
Last Monday, Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek and Minister for Emergency Management Murray Watt announced an intended spending of $236 million to upgrade the nations flood warning gauge networks. This is welcome news, but it must also be recognised that for flood warning to be truly effective we will need to pay more attention to what is done with the information the gauges provide.
21 March 2023
Raising of Warragamba Dam spun in New South Wales election campaign
An interesting comment was made this month about the New South Wales Coalitions intention to raise Warragamba Dam in order to store floodwaters and thus mitigate the problem of flooding downstream. The comment as retailed by ABC Online came from the Liberal MP and candidate for the seat of Hawkesbury in the coming state election, Robyn Preston.
25 February 2023
Some things dont change: the alarming attitude that still surfaces on the edges of Australian cricket
There was a bothersome moment on television late in last weeks first cricket Test between Australia and India in Nagpur.
18 February 2023
T20: blessing or curse to cricket?
Several developments in recent times suggest that T20 is a potential danger to cricket.
18 January 2023
Cricket Australias Afghanistan problem
In cancelling its scheduled March series of three one-day matches against Afghanistan, Australian Cricket takes us into familiarly problematic territory. It brings to mind the battle, fought for two decades against South Africas apartheid regime, where cricket and rugby boycotts played a significant role.
13 January 2023
Can Bazball save Test cricket?
Test cricket is sometimes its own worst enemy, regularly shooting itself in the foot. Can Bazball save it? And can the playing conditions be applied more effectively?
22 December 2022
The rub of the (very) green at the Gabba
Its not cricket is a term that originates from the idea of the importance of fairness. In the first cricket Test against South Africa weve just seen a case of alleged lack of fairness, of a kind, demonstrated at the Gabba in Brisbane.
19 November 2022
Can T20 and Test cricket continue to exist together?
For decades there have been concerns about the viability of Tests. Do administrators, in their lust for the rivers of cash which T20 brings in, recognise the dangers of this moment in crickets history?
24 October 2022
Sharper focus on flood education and community engagement needed
The flooding in eastern Australia over recent weeks has been serious and in some areas it has seemed never-ending.
18 October 2022
Towards a phase shift in flood management?
The call by Murray Watt, Minister for Emergency Management, for a national discussion about new development in disaster-prone areas should be welcomed.
9 October 2022
Perrottet bites the Warragamba bullet, and we should be concerned
New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet has made a decision which has been on the cards for decades: his government will fast-track the raising of Warragamba Dam as a means of mitigating flooding on the Hawkesbury-Nepean river system. And we still keep building on flood plains.
15 September 2022
Climate change, weather elements and natural disasters: what links?
Over the past couple of years, the idea that humanly-created climate change is real and worrying has become increasingly accepted in Australia. Few scientists now argue the opposite point of view, the commentariat has largely followed suit even News Corps opposition is no longer a matter of policy and polls suggest that scepticism and denialism are in retreat in the popular mind.
22 August 2022
The independent New South Wales flood inquiry has landed
The much-awaited report of the Independent NSW Flood Inquiry has been released.
4 August 2022
Raising Warragamba Dam is not the best flood mitigation strategy, Premier
Last week, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said that raising Warragamba Dam was the best strategy for managing the flood problem in the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley. It is not. It is not even a good strategy, or close to one.
31 July 2022
The 100-year flood and the floor levels of houses
The so-called 100-year (or 1% Annual Exceedence Probability) flood has two main uses in the public domain in Australia. Both are problematic, though not intentionally so on the part of those whose professional activities are bound by its use.
24 July 2022
The flood problem, immigration and population growth
The management of weather-related emergency situations like floods is the responsibility of the states. But the policies and activities of the Commonwealth government can make big differences to the impacts of floods, either for better or for worse. This is clearly demonstrated via immigration policy and its impact on population growth.
18 July 2022
Are we approaching a consensus on the need to manage flooding differently?
It is possible that recent events related to flooding in New South Wales are galvanising a consensus on how we manage the threats floods pose. If that is so, we are on the verge of a phase shift in our management of floods.
13 July 2022
Another word on the sadness and madness of the language of the one-in-100-years flood
Not even the Premier of New South Wales understands the meaning of the term the one-in-100-years flood. Nor does the Prime Minister, who this week repeated the Premiers misguided words on it.
11 July 2022
NSW awaits a momentous decision on housing development on floodplains
When it comes to the management of weather-related disasters like floods, governments can be relied upon to act in only two circumstances catastrophe or repetition.
6 July 2022
Flood misunderstanding, miscommunication, extremes and records
Last Monday, a couple spoke to an ABC television reporter on the back steps of their home on the edge of Wollongongs Lake Illawarra. They were confident that the flood they could see in front of them would not rise beyond the level it had reached. After all, theyd been living there for 19 years and no flood in that time had exceeded that level.
6 April 2022
Climate change: Scott Morrison's achilles heel
Scott Morrison has a problem with climate change which reflects his style of governing.
28 March 2022
Will central Lismore be abandoned after yet another flood.
Now that the floodwaters have hopefully gone and communities are focusing on recovery, the question of relocation has become central in discussions about the future.
9 March 2022
A ten-point plan for managing floods in Australia
All flood crises are more or less wasted, and the ones we have just experienced in New South Wales and Queensland will probably be no different.
7 March 2022
The problem on the floodplain where we should not be building.
After Lismores horrific flood, we simply must reconsider our approach to development on floodplains.
28 January 2022
Grace Tame stayed true to her cause and her self in meeting an unhelpful PM
Tames critics came from the right, and they attacked their targets alleged rudeness rather than dealing with the legitimacy of her approach.
1 January 2022
Cricket cannot afford to go back to the bad old days of abuse
Bored by the lack of an Ashes contest, past players are creating mischief by calling for a return to sledging. These calls must be rejected.
16 October 2021
Raise Warragamba dam, raise the risk to the environment
More housing, less habitat. More extinctions, less vegetation. With the raising of Australia's largest urban water supply dam, Sydney would be further primed to emulate the flood disasters of Brisbane.
28 April 2021
The political problem of defining "flood prone"
The words flood and prone are simple enough to comprehend, but when they are put next to each other in a sentence they can quickly become problematic.
19 April 2021
Alarming inconsistency: NSW Government Ministers on development in flood-prone areas
The floods on the eastward-flowing rivers of New South Wales have abated, but when they were at their height there were some alarming differences between state government ministers on the important matter of development on the floodplains of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River system.
6 April 2021
The 'levee paradox': why has development in floodplains exploded?
In March we were reminded that flooding is a problem in Australia. It is a problem partly because of the way we accommodate our growing population on floodplains.
30 March 2021
The meaning of the word 'floodplain' - and the consequences of building on one
One of the great challenges of city building is building sustainably. Many of our towns and cities are built at least in part on floodplains, which are by definition problematic as places on which to build.
29 March 2021
Re-thinking flood mitigation and development, especially in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley
The rain has gone, the floods on the eastward-flowing rivers are receding in Queensland and New South Wales and the focus has shifted from response to recovery. But theres another important matter which needs to be addressed mitigation, or the means by which we can reduce the impacts of future flooding. Lets look at this in the context of attempts that have been and could be made to manage floodwater and ensure that flood peaks are kept as low as reasonably possible.