Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Adjournment

Flood mitigation

Cindy McLEISH (Eildon) (19:00): (501) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Water. Minister, communities across the Murrindindi shire continue to suffer from what are becoming regular flood events impacting their properties, their homes and their lives. The action I seek is for the minister to put in place an effective flood-monitoring network across the district and to assign consistent responsibilities for water management and flood mitigation duties in rural Victoria.

The Yea River experienced a large flood event on 8 and 9 January this year which saw the Yea township cut off and isolated for a period. The lack of effective real-time gauging at strategic locations across the catchment meant that incident managers, emergency service staff and locals alike were unaware of the escalating situation. This resulted in the community being left in a very vulnerable position. If not for the efforts of the SES and CFA and other locals further up the catchment sharing observations across the area, the situation may have been a lot worse. The Murrindindi shire has a number of large waterways with significant catchment areas, the largest being the Goulburn River, but other significant waterways such as the Yea River, Acheron River, Rubicon River, King Parrot Creek and Murrindindi River exist and contribute to flow conditions.

The Bureau of Meteorology relies on rain and river gauge information to issue flood warnings across Victoria. The number of rainfall and flow gauging sites across the district is low, and there are many areas and waterways where there is no gauging taking place at all. The lack of data available in these areas limits flood mitigation planning and warnings that might otherwise be put in place if a broader network existed. Given the large scale of the area there can be significant variation in the rainfall that falls across the district, creating a variety of flood outcomes. The intensity of the rainfall in the recent January event came from tributaries that do not have adequate flood gauging to inform the incident control centre or the bureau, leaving both without crucial data needed to manage the event effectively.

The current gauging network needs to be evaluated and expanded with additional real-time telemetry stations as necessary to provide a comprehensive flood response. The gauges that do exist in the region are managed by different agencies, including the bureau, Goulburn Murray Water, the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and local councils. Waterway responsibilities and flood management roles, such as flood risk identification, flood mitigation and flood planning, are split between different agencies. This too can lead to an inconsistent approach. A more coordinated and strategic approach is required to enable effective catchment management in the region. In short, water management and flood mitigation are fragmented in rural Victoria, with mixed agency responsibilities compared to the metropolitan model, where Melbourne Water is responsible.