By Sophie Aubrey and Clay Lucas
The head of the Maribyrnong River flood inquiry is facing calls to resign after it emerged he supported changes to planning rules that led to a retirement village building homes in areas swamped during last year’s disaster.
State Opposition Leader John Pesutto said people whose retirement villas in Avondale Heights were flooded “deserve straight answers”, as he called on inquiry chair Nick Wimbush to be stood down. The Greens also called for Wimbush to stand aside.
Karen McKay, whose Rivervue home flooded in October 2022, at her temporary accommodation in Cowes.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“It was never appropriate for this appointment to be made and the Andrews Labor government must stand down its hand-picked chair today,” Pesutto said.
Wimbush, a planning expert regularly used by the Victorian government, was appointed by Melbourne Water after October’s floods to run the government-owned authority’s review.
In November 2015, Wimbush was the sole person on an expert panel after Melbourne Water requested that Moonee Valley City Council change flood planning rules covering a portion of the Rivervue Retirement Village site next to the Maribyrnong River.
Melbourne Water’s amendment moved the one-in-100-year flood risk area closer to the river, leaving only a sliver of designated flood-prone land between the retirement village in Avondale Heights and the river.
Following the planning changes backed by Wimbush, the exclusive retirement village – which was first approved in 2006 after an application by an earlier owner of the site – began its construction on land that was no longer considered a floodplain.
Today, 47 of Rivervue’s top-end homes, built closest to the river, remain uninhabited as they undergo $7 million in repairs for flood damage sustained on October 14 last year.
The residents, many aged in their 70s and 80s, have been left locked out of their homes. Some are living with relatives or paying their own money to rent temporary residences.
The Age approached Melbourne Water on Monday morning to ask about the process it followed in establishing its inquiry. Repeated requests for answers went without a response by Tuesday afternoon. Water Minister Harriet Shing was also contacted for comment.
The flood seen from Rivervue: 1) On the night before, the river lies way beyond the pond; 2) At 6.43am on the day of the flood; 3) At 7.08am.
The Age attempted to contact Wimbush directly and via the state Planning Department, but he could not be reached by deadline.
Melbourne Water appointed Wimbush in December to chair its review of the October flood, which includes examining the flooding at Rivervue.
Chair of the flood inquiry Nick Wimbush.
Wimbush has sat on several expert panels for major government development projects including the West Gate Tunnel, the North East Link and the East West Link. The Age does not suggest he would not act independently in his role as chair of Melbourne Water’s review, only that his previous recommendations on the Rivervue land may give rise to a perceived lack of independence.
On January 24, in Melbourne Water’s first information session for its review of the October floods, engagement officer Liz Nairn confirmed Rivervue would be part of its inquiry.
“We certainly are aware of the concerns that are starting to be raised about the Rivervue development in Avondale Heights,” she told the meeting.
The planning amendment approved by the Andrews government in 2016 – after Wimbush backed it – meant that incoming residents did not have to be made aware of the property’s former flood overlay, and after the October flood, Rivervue management assured residents no homes were built on a floodplain.
In January, Melbourne Water managing director Nerina Di Lorenzo told The Age Wimbush would be “a very good independent chair, and has a lot of experience in this space”.
“We’ve got probity auditors over the top of the process to just make sure it’s clear and transparent,” she said.
The Rivervue Retirement Village on October 14.
Avondale Heights is two kilometres west of the suburb of Maribyrnong, where 525 homes were hit by a wall of water in the early hours of October 14.
At Rivervue, most of the flood-damaged homes’ lower levels have had to be totally stripped back.
Their residents – some of whom paid close to $1 million to take out 99-year leases on the top-end villas – expect to remain without a permanent home until at least April.
Plans for the Rivervue development were originally rejected by Moonee Valley City Council, but the decision was overturned at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in 2006.
The VCAT member noted concerns about the development’s suitability for aged people. “The proximity of the land to the floodplain has some risk. However, all accommodation would be above the 1:100-year flood level.”
Moonee Valley City Council went on to approve several minor changes to the development’s planning permit between 2009 and 2022.
Ron Sutherland is a civil engineer, and for 12 of his 20 years at Melbourne Water was manager of land development. He left the authority in 2002.
He said the flood overlay on Rivervue should never have been changed. “The overlay was changed incorrectly. The developer wanted it changed so they could build more units.”
He said, in his opinion, it was “completely and utterly inappropriate” for Wimbush to continue as chair of the inquiry.
And he said the homes at Rivervue that flooded should be removed. “Those houses should never have been built.”
Devastated residents of the village, which sits on a 7.4-hectare site, have been left questioning why their homes flooded, destroying most of their belongings.
Karen McKay, 76, sold her long-term home in Maribyrnong and moved to a $550,000 villa at Rivervue with her late husband, Jim, in 2019 specifically to escape living on a floodplain.
McKay, who is now in temporary accommodation on Phillip Island, went to sleep on the night of October 13 never expecting floodwater to pour into her home.
“I’m still looking at it in disbelief. Our biggest fear had come to us,” she said. “As far as [Jim] was concerned, he picked the safest spot for us and that was so important to him.”
Rae and Colin Waters, both in their 70s, said they asked about flood risk before paying $825,000 for their home, located on the outer edge of the village with river views.
“We never worried,” Rae said. “If we’d have thought we had one chance of being flooded, we wouldn’t have gone, or we would have gone higher.”
Rae and Colin Waters have been left devastated by the floods.Credit: Scott McNaughton
Greens water spokeswoman Ellen Sandell said Wimbush’s involvement in the previous planning scheme amendment “casts yet another cloud over the independence of the Melbourne Water flood inquiry”.
She said Wimbush should be stood aside by the government.
The Greens have proposed a parliamentary inquiry into the floods. Sandell said parliament would look more readily than Melbourne Water at decisions made in the past “that potentially made the flood impacts worse”.
She said the government should “support the Greens’ motion for a proper parliamentary inquiry that gets to the bottom of this mess”.
A spokesman for Tigcorp, the owner of Rivervue, said the retirement village was constructed according to approved permits and planning controls from the council and reviewed by Melbourne Water. “We did not, and never would, build on a floodplain.”
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