An Undera community group has told a parliamentary inquiry that it was astonished by the Victorian Government’s response to requests for help to repair levee banks after last October’s floods.
The Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee heard the evidence during a hearing of its inquiry into the 2022 flood event that caused widespread damage across the Goulburn Valley.
Among the groups to appear before the inquiry was the Undera Flood Group, representing farmers and community members from the Undera area on the Goulburn River downstream from Shepparton.
The group told the hearing that it had identified 18 breaches of levee banks in its area, totalling 450 lineal metres along 30km of bank and 6500ha of land in the area inundated.
When making inquiries about assistance being provided to repair the banks, however, group members were shocked by the government’s response.
“We have made approaches to all levels of government and authorities seeking the restoration of the levee banks following the floods,” the group’s Judith Clements said.
“To our astonishment and alarm, we discovered that there was no intention by government to fund the restoration of these banks as we’d experienced in the past.
“Any rural community could be well justified in feeling that their wellbeing was not valued the same as an urban community, and it is equally insulting to suggest that only farmers are the beneficiaries (of the levees).”
Ms Clements said there was precedent for the government to assist with the repairs.
“There has been a precedent set for the repairs of these levees through government funding following previous flood events, the last occasion being in 1993, when repairs were required,” she said.
“These banks are a critical part of the infrastructure, and the integrity of these structures is paramount. Without them, the community cannot return to normal.”
The group said individuals had taken it upon themselves to repair levees, although some levees on the northern side of the river were yet to be restored.
Another of the group’s representatives, Alastair Chessells, added that levees could only do part of the work, and other communities upstream needed to accept more of the floodwater in future events.
“I believe that we should come up with a plan that has some spillways in the river in the levee bank system to allow this water to escape, and (then) it may only be coming on to us for a few days, coming over those spillways once that initial burst has passed,” he said.
“Then, once that has dropped down below the spillway, the water is not going to continue to come on us for weeks.
“On the north side (of the Goulburn River), they had it for six weeks.”
The group also said it had had little or no contact from authorities since the floods, and only after its members had made approaches.