Victorian towns ill-prepared for La Nina flood alert

As emergency services go to red alert for floods almost a decade on from deluges that inundated up to a third of Victoria, much of the promised work to protect towns has been abandoned or is incomplete.

Many towns are struggling to complete flood mitigation work, but Rochester residents say the cost of levees and drains is too high.

A POWERFUL La Nina weather system, coupled with a warming East Indian Ocean, is putting Victorian emergency services on red alert for floods, which many Victorian towns are ill-prepared to face.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared “La Nina conditions are present and are likely to continue”.

Australian Bureau of Meteorology emergency services meteorologist Kevin Parkyn has briefed emergency services on the risk of floods, given “it’s quite a strong La Nina signal”.

He said there was also the risk of a “wildcard” being played this summer as the La Nina drove the build-up of atmospheric moisture over warm oceans, increasing the risk of decaying tropical cyclones bringing heavy rain to southern Australia.

The scenario has prompted a warning many communities were ill-prepared to cope with floods on the scale that inundated up to a third of the state in 2010-11 and early 2012, washing though 1730 properties, destroying 93,000ha of crops and pasture and leaving a $2 billion damages bill.

The state opposition has accused the Government of failing to act to build levees to protect towns hard-hit in those floods.

“The Andrews Labor Government has dropped the ball when it comes to ensuring our communities are adequately prepared to withstand and respond to the impacts of floods,” said Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh.

In Numurkah, where 100 homes were flooded in the 2012 floods, the community has still not built 9km of levees, following disputes over siting, land acquisition and sourcing $18 million to do the work from the Victorian and federal governments.

While the Numurkah hospital has been rebuilt and raised, Moira Shire councillor John Beitzel said nothing had been done to protect homes that flooded in 2012.

“There’s a sense of frustration that we’re eight years down the track and nothing much has changed,” Mr Beitzel said.

Numurkah Floodplain Action Group member Colin Pendlebury said nothing had been done to acquire land needed for the levee and “if we get six inches of rain this spring we’re in trouble”.

Rochester has rejected spending $7.1 million on constructing levees and drains, which would cut the number of homes flooded to above their floors, from 355 down to 172 during a repeat of January 2011.

Campaspe Shire Infrastructure general manager Jason Deller said a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed Rochester mitigation work showed it would only deliver a “net annual average reduction in flood damage costs of $82,400”.

“This information was presented to the community and soundly rejected by the town’s people as a group,” Mr Deller said.

“Consequently the works have not proceeded and the community has focused its attention on the flood warning systems.”

Rochester State Emergency Services controller Judith Gledhill said households at risk of flooding had been sent fridge magnets that indicated river gauge heights that would flood their homes.

“So, hopefully they’ll be more prepared,” Ms Gledhill said. “They’ll know when to panic and not panic.”

The strategy sits in stark contrast to Nathalia, where 480m of demountable aluminium levees are in storage, which adds to substantial levees, that local councillor Kevin Bourke said meant the town was “as snug as bug in a rug” when it came to floods.

But other towns are not so well prepared, including Carisbrook, where local MP Louise Staley said infighting and mismanagement within the Central Goldfields Shire Council had led to delays in constructing levees.

The Victorian Government was forced to sack the council in 2017, with chief administrator Noel Harvey getting flood mitigation work back on track this year.

“We have just let the tender for stage three (of four) to build a 1km levee north of the Pyrenees Highway,” Mr Harvey said. “We’re waiting on funding for stage four (a 1.5km levee south of the highway).”

On northern Victoria’s massive floodplain the Gannawarra Shire has built levees and stockpiled 200,000 sandbags.

Gannawarra Shire infrastructure and development director Geoff Rollinson said his team had built 3km of levees along the Murray Valley Hwy to create a 17km ring around Kerang, plus a new levee along the Avoca River to protect Quambatook.

However Mr Rollinson said it was crucial the Federal Government maintained the Natural Disaster Resilience funding for flood mitigation work, which has been in place since 2011.

He said the fund would be needed to do more work, such as repairs and upgrades to the Koondrook-Barham levee, parts of which had been put up in haste during floods and needed reinforcing.

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But it’s not just northern Victoria at risk.

Mr Parkyn said the BOM’s analysis of soil moisture and streamflows showed the Barwon, Yarra and Latrobe catchments were “a bit of a concern”.

“Emergency services have to be prepared when we get a signal like this.”

Victorian Water Minister Lisa Neville said the Government continued to invest in flood mitigation projects, working with councils and the Federal Government to identity and fund local priority projects through the federal resilience grants program.

“Since coming into power, we have funded 100 flood mitigation projects in rural Victoria, including levees, flood warning systems and improved flood studies,” Ms Neville said.

But much of that work has focused on planning amendments, 37 flood studies, six flood information projects and warning gauge networks at Bairnsdale, Numurkah, Skipton, Casterton and across East Gippsland.

Actual drainage, diversion and levee work has been limited to Skipton, Dunolly, Donald, Euroa, Warragul, Wodonga and Warracknabeal.