The discovery of damage to a levee bank at Koonoomoo has a resident in the area raising concerns about who is maintaining the first defence local communities have against an impending flood risk.
Koonoomoo resident Malcolm Taylor raised his concerns in a letter to Moira Shire Council, saying a “serious defect” had appeared in the levee.
Mr Taylor said if the levee failed, it not only threatened homes and agricultural production, it also had the potential to stop transport along the Newell Hwy, one of Australia’s major inland thoroughfares.
Moira Shire Council infrastructure services director Joshua Lewis admitted there was uncertainty over which authority was responsible for monitoring and maintaining rural levees.
“The general message is that no government agency has assumed responsibility for those rural levees,” he said.
“So at this stage, there isn't anyone that's actively inspecting, maintaining those levees.”
Mr Lewis said council was responsible for urban levees within the shire and did not want to accept responsibility for additional levees it was not funded for, but did want to assist with a solution.
“So one of the things that we have agreed to is to undertake some private works for some of those affected landowners and that's largely through the provision of sandbags and some other materials to enable them to affect some works that may see that levee perform,” he said.
Mr Lewis said the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority was prepared to issue permits for work on crown land, which was generally managed by Parks Victoria.
“So essentially, these landowners, they’ll get that permit, we're going to say, ‘Look, we're going to assist by way of some materials and things for a nominal fee’, and they're happy to undertake those works themselves, so all credit to them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Taylor followed up his original letter alerting to the problem by saying swift repairs had been made to the levee.
He said a gathering of volunteers with help from the SES, Moira Shire Council staff, Parks Victoria, Koonoomoo and Yarroweyah fire brigades and local businesses, MON Beverages and Jobling Excavations had made the repairs.
With more rainfall forecast over the next few months and water catchments and storages already full, the region’s levees are likely to be required for the foreseeable future.
“We could be in this position for quite some time,” Mr Lewis said.
“We've had a lot of water going past us, probably below a minor flood level, but you know, it's been teetering on that borderline for quite some time.”