Moira Shire Council has signed off on a draft $14.8 million masterplan to protect Yarrawonga West from flooding, a move that is expected to free up the area for development.
The plan would protect the western third of Yarrawonga – which includes residential, industrial and farm areas – from floods and free up the area for development, with council highlighting a benefit-cost-ratio of 2.3 to 4.4 even without rezoning.
As part of the draft masterplan, developers are expected to tip in $3m of the cost via S173 agreements - legally binding agreements between a responsible authority (such as a council) and a current or prospective landowner.
Of the remaining $11.8m cost, council has applied for $5.6m in grant funding through the National Disaster Ready Fund.
Council’s report says several developers are ready to move if the drainage plan is implemented, with more likely to follow.
“The area is expected to undergo development in the short to medium term with DLPs already approved for new residential subdivisions off Reilly’s Road and Channel Road (Chicken Hill), and a proposed industrial subdivision off Melaleuca Drive,” the draft plan said.
“The plan also has regards to potential growth in Yarrawonga South.”
The plan will see five retention basins – resembling small lakes when full – dug around Yarrawonga West, with the first and biggest (110,000m3) to be placed at the site of the old, and unused, saleyards at the corner of Benalla and South roads.
Council will invite feedback from the community and stakeholders before it officially adopts the plan.
The plan would be carried out in five stages, with construction of the first to begin in 2025/26 and the final stage to start in 2029/30.
The plan allows for adjustments from stage to stage, with basin three currently situated east of the old sewerage treatment plant but the plan allows flexibility to move it directly onto the sewerage site, following a decontamination process, if needed.
The basins will be connected by pipes with council saying the plan will “provide storm water management as per the Infrastructure Design Manual requirements for urban areas and reduce the impact of flooding to the Yarrawonga community”.
The 2012 floods inundated buildings in Yarrawonga West, from homes along Havenstock Drive to businesses in the industrial park, and cut off streets and roads for days.
The build will also include the construction of pipelines from Basin 2 east of the old sewerage plant to Cahills Road and along Cahills Road/Old Wilby Road, as well as some interception pipes to redirect water to basins.
The plan will also involve the construction of rising mains – pressurised pipes – along Murray Valley Highway, east of the railway and along McNamara Walk.
There will also be development of a 6m-wide drainage easement and channel across 102 Old Wilby Road.
An indicative budget and cost breakdown has $4.95m ($3.15m from outside council) being spent on the project in the financial year beginning next June – with construction also expected to begin in that 12-month window.
A further $3.8m spend is planned in 2026-27 which would complete the first three stages – and the bulk of the project. That plan does not include developer contributions needed to complete basins two and three (which are in the first three stages).
Council expects the project to have an economic multiplier effect (benefit-cost ratio between 2.3 and 4.4) but added that the ratio did not take into account the prospect of farmland in the area being rezoned within the next 50 years, which would enhance the benefit-cost-ratio further.
The project is also expected to lower insurance premiums around stormwater and flood damage of businesses and households in the area.
The Yarrawonga West catchment naturally drains northwest from Chicken Hill towards the Murray River, with most of the topography of the catchment being flat except for minor depressions from predevelopment streams and Chicken Hill, a hill located south of Channel Road.