Renmark races to prepare for Murray flooding

Renmark knows what’s coming down the mighty Murray, but time is running out to prepare the town’s defences.

Two weeks ago, Dave Degrancy was working on the new roundabout and road between Renmark and Berri.

Then he was chief operating officer of Altitude Earthworks, now he’s the man co-ordinating the protection of Renmark from an ever-rising River Murray. And he has about a month to do so.

It has meant starting the day at 4.20am, working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. Degrancy’s Altitude has joined forces with five other earthwork operators from around the Riverland in an emergency operation to shore up the crumbling and inadequate levees that protect Renmark from a flooding Murray.

Mr Degrancy’s new title is site supervisor of the project to rebuild the flood banks. He is overseeing 200 truck movements a day, co-ordinating a fleet of semi-trailers, excavators, graders, compactors, dump trucks and scrapers. The site is a blur of activity, perpetual motion in action.

Before all this ends he expects somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of rock, clay and earth will have been moved. He admits it’s a “race against time’’ but the level of professionalism and co-operation has inspired him.

“These contractors are all fierce competitors, but there has been not been any arguments, normally you would expect a punch up,’’ he said with a laugh.

Dave Degrancy at the site of earthworks for the River Murray levee at Bookmark Creek in Renmark. Picture: Emma Brasier

And they are moving fast.

It all started with an emergency meeting at the Renmark Paringa Council chambers on Monday, October 24.

There were around 20 representatives from six companies who sat down to work out how to make sure a River Murray rising to its highest level in almost 50 years did not swamp the town.

The river is expected to peak at around 135GL a day pouring over the state’s border. Some still believe it could rise as high as 150GL, a level not seen since 1975.

On the plus side, the peak was not expected to arrive until early December. The minus was that the levee system that had been built during and after the much bigger 1956 flood had been allowed to fall into disrepair.

Erosion, holes dug by animals, landholders destroying banks to put in private roads had all weakened Renmark’s defences against a Murray in flood.

Tarik Wolf, manager of infrastructure at Renmark Paringa Council, described the flood banks as being “in a poor structural condition’’.

Of most pressing concern was the levee closest to the town’s hospital. There are 38km of levees in the council’s area but this 800m stretch was the most worrying.

The hospital is only 400m from the bank and there are also houses nearby. The hospital flooded in 1956, but back then it had no protection from the rising river.

The meeting ended in agreement. The contractors would stop whatever they were doing and join forces.

“Every Riverland contractor prioritised helping Riverland councils and protecting their community,’’ Mr Wolf said.

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The week of the meeting had opened with Renmark being pounded by 100mm of rain. Not ideal conditions for a massive earthmoving project. By the Wednesday the site was up and running.

“Normally it would take 12 to 18 months to plan this level of construction,’’ Mr Wolf said. “We had to do this in days.’’

Mr Degrancy said the first job was to lower the flood bank by 1.4m. It was imperative to create a road wide enough to take heavy machinery. He said initially he was even worried about driving his ute on top of the levee because it was so narrow.

“It was not like building a rural road out the back of nowhere, heavy vehicles had to run on it,’’ he said.

Hundreds of tonnes of rock were brought into to make a road base, then the right clay had to be found to repair the levees. The original banks had been built using a more pervious material.

The right clay was found out at Chaffey, north of the town and a system was set up to bring it in, dump it in one pile before being redistributed around the site.

More clay was dug out by excavators on site, a strong base was built and the levee was rebuilt 300mm at a time. When a new layer was added it would all be compacted to add strength.

The water is coming in quickly to the site. An offshoot of Bookmark Creek is filling up and already lapping at the bottom of some parts of the levee. But Mr Degrancy said it wouldn’t pose a danger to the town.

“The water is not a threat to the community but it is coming into the work site and that is a pain in the bum,’’ he said.

The dilapidated state of Renmark’s flood defences was reported in The Advertiser last month and some locals this week in a public meeting questioned why it had been left so late to be fixed.

Renmark Paringa mayor Neil Martinson said there had been some “serious questions about why this hadn’t been done before’’.

Part of the problem, he said, was the town had been built in a flood plain, when the site was settled by Europeans in the 1880s. He also said there was plenty of blame to go around.

“Since ’56, that was 66 years ago, there’s probably been 30 different councils. Which one do you want to pick out of that to lay some blame?’’ he asked. “Let’s just get on and do it.’’

Last line of defence … work to reinforce the levee at Renmark. Picture: Emma Brasier

Mr Wolf said the levees should protect Renmark until at least a flow of 200GL. There has been a survey completed of the remainder of the 38km of flood banks.

The process to repair them complicated by the fact they are either on or are adjacent to 300 parcels of private land.

“Early next week the whole town will be where it needs to be,’’ he predicted.

From there work will continue in communities such as Lyrup and Paringa which are also threatened by the rising river.

Of the contractors such as Mr Degrancy who have banded together to protect Renmark, Mr Wolf said: “To see them do this, to look after the community is so impressive’’.