Urana is located in Federation Council, approximately 100km northwest of Albury and 100km southwest of Wagga Wagga. It has a population of 384 people (2016 census) and is located on the banks of the ephemeral Urangeline Creek (also known as Urana Creek). The creek flows in a north-westerly direction along the western side of the township and discharges into Lake Urana, a natural storage area approximately 4km downstream of the town. Lake Urana stores approximately 164,000ML when filled to its Cocketgedong Creek outlet level of 113.39m AHD (Bewsher 2002). High lake levels can influence flooding at Urana by reducing the hydraulic head and backing water up Urangeline Creek as far as the Urana Aquatic Centre Dam, just upstream of the village (Yeo 2013). Urana is serviced by a small informal levee running from Stephen Street to Chapman Street. An underground stormwater system drains water from Osborne and Chapman Streets and discharges it downstream of the levee.

Flooding in Urana occurs primarily from Urangeline Creek and to a lesser extent breakout flows from Billabong Creek. The floodwaters from Billabong Creek join Urangeline Creek upstream of Urana and are typically slow moving and peak well after the dominant Urangeline Creek peak (Yeo 2013). The town has experienced several major floods including June 1889, July 1891, June 1931, January 1934, October 1934, July 1936, January 1974, October 2010, February 2011 and March 2012. The 2012 flood is likely to be the largest flood event at Urana since 1889, and may be the highest flood since observations were documented (Yeo 2013). The Aquatic Centre Dam levee was overtopped by up to 0.6m and some 29 houses and 12 commercial/public sector buildings experienced above floor flooding. Approximately 84 properties had inundation of yards (Yeo 2013). A cut was placed in the embankment of the Aquatic Centre Dam during the flood events of 2010 and 2012 to take pressure off the spillway (Yeo 2013).

The primary objective is to define the nature and extent of flood behaviour in and adjacent to Urana town. The study will produce information on flood levels, velocities, flows, hydraulic categories and provisional hazard categories for 20%, 10%, 5%, 2%, 1%, 0.5%, 0.2% annual exceedance probability (AEP) events and the probable maximum flood (PMF) event.