A study by the Committee for Greater Shepparton, in the wake of last year’s devastating floods across the Goulburn Valley, has found that a second Goulburn River crossing would have avoided the “majority of challenges experienced” by industry and services.
The study by Eugenie Stragalinos, of EMS Consulting, sought feedback from the committee’s 120 members, including businesses, government agencies and not-for-profit organisations, on possible improvements to Greater Shepparton’s flood response capability and how it could better prepare for future events.
The study also found that with the latest flood mapping and appropriate council building standards, Greater Shepparton had a future, despite being situated on a flood plain where three water courses, the Goulburn and Broken rivers and Seven Creeks, converged.
“Sixty to 80 per cent of business would have been business as usual, so significant amounts of financial disruption to those businesses, and a lot of them are still getting back up to to full speed today, and we’re seven months on,” Committee for Greater Shepparton board chair Leigh Findlay said.
Mr Findlay used an anecdote from the visit by Governor-General David Hurley, a former Chief of the Defence Force, to emphasise how the local economy would not have been so severely impacted if vital infrastructure was better protected and movement across the river possible.
Alluding to military targeting infrastructure such as bridges during conflicts, Mr Findlay suggested Greater Shepparton’s vital services and links had also been crippled.
“I said to him, ‘I get why you burn the bridges and take out the substations and the power plants and the sewer. You know, all those major infrastructure.’ I said, ‘We’ve had all of that taken out and, you know, we’re really, really struggling’,” Mr Findlay said.
Committee chief executive Lindy Nieuwenhuizen said a second river crossing was an obvious need before the floods, but the report had shown it was glaringly obvious now.
“I think what we showed was the two communities, and we’d even bring Tatura into that mix as well, function as one city and the idea that they can function independently of each other, there’s just too much reliance on each other,” Ms Nieuwenhuizen said.
“Whether it be workforce, whether it be service delivery, or just be freight and traffic movement, to not have reliable access across Victoria’s biggest river (needs to be changed).”
The causeway between Shepparton and Mooroopna is the region’s busiest road, with in excess of 30,000 traffic movements a day of freight, workers and residents moving from one side to another for work, including vital health and aged care jobs.
“So the role of the causeway in enabling continuity of service delivery of emergency services and then the safe movement of people under all circumstances is a key one,” Ms Nieuwenhuizen said.
The report also found that the city could have a future in its current location, despite the scale of the impact of the floods and the predictions of more to come, given climate change.
“The CMA’s (Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority) flood mapping was brought up repeatedly as to just not only did we have it, but this was probably one of the most widespread testing of its accuracy and it stood up well and truly, it’s that information which then underpins some of the planning controls and requirements in the region,” Ms Nieuwenhuizen said.
Another of the report’s findings was that the region was blessed with a vast range of skills and expertise, which could be put to greater use as part of the response to future emergencies.
“What we heard was, firstly, there’s an appetite and secondly, Shepp seems to have the necessary skills and agencies and organisations to actually facilitate that to happen,” Ms Nieuwenhuizen said.
The committee will hold a second information session for its members on Wednesday, May 31 at 5.30pm. Members will be notified by the committee of more details.