The Federal Government is investing $236 million to establish a national flood warning network.
Shadow Emergency Management Minister Perin Davey said this was something she had long advocated for.
“The current network of river gauges and flood warning infrastructure is owned by multiple state, local government and other agencies and they don’t all talk to each other,” Senator Davey said.
In a submission to the statewide flood enquiry, the Bureau of Meteorology said at 12.09am on October 13 last year a moderate flood warning was issued for the Goulburn River, Seymour.
This was upgraded to major flooding approximately 12 hours later, at about midday (12.11pm).
Between the initial major flood warning on October 13 and the peak height of 8.26m, occurring at 2.45am October 14, four warnings were issued for Seymour.
Local business owner Adam Griffiths from BFT Seymour said the warning system was almost a full day too late to protect his business from flooding.
“I notified Mitchell Shire and Victoria Police at 9.30am on the Thursday, we didn’t officially flood until Friday at 1am when we got the notice to evacuate. But, we had water up to our calves by 5.30pm,” he said.
“The warning system was 100 per cent too late, almost a day too late.”
Neighbouring business owner Courtney Caroll from Stihl Shop Seymour agreed, saying that with adequate warning, much more stock could have been saved.
“My main issue was the warning ... We knew there was a lot of rain around but didn’t know we could be underwater in the same day,” she said.
“If we had that extra time [from an improved warning system], we could have gotten customers’ property out earlier,” Ms Carrol said.
Now Stihl faces the expensive task of repairing customer stock without a successful insurance claim.
The network for which funding has been announced is intended to allow for early warnings that assist communities, emergency services and businesses to prepare for future flooding events.