The township of Lockhart is located on the banks of Brookong Creek in the south-west of New South Wales, about 65 kilometres west of Wagga Wagga. Brookong Creek runs through the town and drains a self-contained catchment with an area upstream of Lockhart of about 150 km2. It is a tributary of Urangeline Creek, which drains to the Murray River via Billabong Creek and the Edward River. Brookong Creek is an ephemeral stream and in dry periods only holds water in relatively small billabongs located along the main channel. Nonetheless, runoff from storms is often concentrated in the channel and can cause overtopping of the creek banks which leads to inundation of the floodplain across a wide front. Although Lockhart is not subject to frequent flooding, severe events have occurred on a number of occasions over the last 70 years. Inundation of low-lying areas of the town and significant damage has occurred during these larger events.

The primary objective of the Flood Study is to define flood behaviour along that part of Brookong Creek that runs through Lockhart township. The aim is to produce information on flood flows, velocities, levels and flood extents, for a range of flood events under existing floodplain and catchment conditions. This will provide Council and the Committee with definitive information on the flooding characteristics of Brookong Creek in the vicinity of the town.