As if plucked from a script of Yes Minister, residents around the dam have been told they would be forced to have their homes rebuilt on higher ground because of the threat posed by a freak flood.

By “freak” the state government doesn’t mean once-in-a-decade or even once-in-a-millennium, but once-in-ten-million years.

Warning: your descendants 400,000 generations away could be in real strife.

Thankfully, in 10 million years they may have evolved enough to be able to breathe underwater.

It would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious.

Ratepayers are likely to be stung up to $20 million so Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) can undertake the remedial work. 

This would likely come via ratcheted-up rates or a special water levy.

And, under the plan, about 50 other homes in the area would suddenly be declared to be lying on a flood-plain, wiping a collective millions of dollars from their value.

Obfuscating matters further are the sounds coming out of the state government.

Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson has raised concerns about the cost-benefit ratio, saying councils are facing massive bills to achieve small reductions in risk.

Meanwhile, Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson has questioned whether councils should be adopting the Dam Safety Committee’s findings while a review is underway.

TRC councillors are in political purgatory, forced to make the impossible decision of whether to act now or wait until the report is handed down in 2016 and face an even higher rebuild bill.

Most of the arguments are a moot point anyway.

Because if such a freak flood did occur, it wouldn’t just be just a handful of families in Dungowan clambering for higher ground. 

We’d all be living on arks.