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When John Guegan moved into the suburb of Maribyrnong in 1962, he knew the area often flooded. In the years since, he has seen it numerous times.
Which is why, at a “meet the mayor” event last year, Guegan prodded the then-mayor of Maribyrnong Council Anthony Tran that perhaps the municipality should do more to warn residents they lived on a flood plain. Many residents, Guegan thought, had no idea.
Tran responded in September, saying that the council had everything in hand. He thanked Guegan for his advice and assured him the municipality was “future-proofing Maribyrnong”.
John Guegan and Madeleine Serle, whose homes were flooded last October, next to the Maribyrnong River on Friday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
But it turned out no one – not the council, not Melbourne Water, not the state government and not the State Emergency Service – had anything in hand. Maribyrnong certainly wasn’t future proofed. Devastating floods hit Guegan’s suburb in October when the Maribyrnong River burst its banks and residents got almost no warning they were about to be deluged.
“If they did anything to warn people, who knew about it?” asks Guegan from his Maribyrnong home, one of more than 500 properties that flooded.
As the first anniversary of the October 14 floods approaches, Guegan and fellow resident Madeleine Serle are ratcheting up pressure over both the lack of preparation last year and over why more isn’t being done to prepare for the next catastrophe.
Melbourne Water is sitting on an inquiry report it commissioned into the flood and is not planning to release the document written by former Federal Court judge Tony Pagone until November – despite having had it for at least a fortnight already.
Guegan lived through Maribyrnong’s horrendous 1974 floods, seeing the destruction they wrought and helping to set up “warden” warning systems with the council.
Reminded of what a disaster could look like after last February’s Lismore deluge – the biggest flood in modern Australian history – Guegan told the mayor when he met him last July that even the RACV magazine was warning readers how to prepare, while Maribyrnong Council was doing nothing.
John Guegan’s home in Duffy Street, Maribyrnong, during last year’s flood.Credit: John Guegan
Tran responded in a later email to Guegan that the council’s emergency management team had reviewed its flood management plan and that “residents with previous experience [in floods or flood management plans] will be contacted”.
Eighteen days after that reassurance went nowhere, flooding eerily similar to 1974 hit the suburb.
The first time most Maribyrnong residents knew that October’s flood was upon them was just after 4am on the morning of the deluge, when they got texts from the State Emergency Service to evacuate.
“A lot of the damage sustained by residents could have been avoided had they been aware of the existence of prior flooding and how to prepare,” Guegan says.
Maribyrnong Council was hardly alone in its relaxed approach to potential flooding – even SES operations chief Tim Wiebusch said the day before last October’s floods the river would remain within the Maribyrnong River’s’ “levees” and residents would be untouched.
Asked about the lack of preemptive action to educate residents that they lived in a flood plain, Cr Tran referred questions to the current mayor Sarah Carter. She said the council needed to keep residents more across the fact that they lived in a flood zone. “If they are saying they weren’t adequately educated on flood preparations, we have to accept that. We can do better.”
Maribyrnong Council set up a “community recovery committee” after October’s flood to help ensure better future preparation. Madeleine Serle, a lawyer whose home was flooded, chairs that committee.
Serle is critical of the council’s failures on the floods. “They’ve done a very good job of slinking back and [pointing to] Melbourne Water and the state government. But on the bus of the people who’ve done the wrong thing here, they’re definitely on that bus and are doing a lot of the navigating.”
She said it was unclear why the council allowed to lapse an excellent system it once had in place to keep residents aware they lived in a flood zone, whereby residents were appointed as wardens who were briefed by the council of imminent dangers and then relayed this to other residents. “We’re not absolutely sure why that system fell away because it worked.”
Army dinghies patrol Maribyrnong’s Navigator Street during the 1974 flood.Credit: John Hart, The Age
In a statement on Saturday, the council said it recognised the value of these “champions on the ground” to help keep the community prepared for flooding.
“We have previously worked closely with the designated flood wardens for Maribyrnong and have had informal conversations with some residents around the potential to reactivate something similar to support our community in the future,” the statement, attributed to the mayor, said.
Meanwhile, with the anniversary of the flood approaching, Melbourne Water’s controversial inquiry into the floods – which excluded a range of issues including warnings, evacuation procedures and urban planning – is sitting on the desk of the authority’s general manager, Nerina Di Lorenzo.
But the water authority is not planning on releasing the document until November – meaning those due to present at upcoming parliamentary hearings in Melbourne, at a separate investigation to be held after significant disquiet with the Melbourne Water inquiry, will not know its contents.
The state government, however, will get it well before the public can see the report.
SES rescuers move Maribyrnong residents to higher ground last October.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Melbourne Water spokesman Michael Zappone confirmed the authority had the report. “Melbourne Water is now in the process of responding,” he said. “Once the report becomes final, we will send it to the government and release it within the timeframes outlined in the terms of reference.”
Five of Melbourne Water’s board finished their terms on Saturday. Among the board members to go were former Labor deputy premier John Thwaites, who has been chair of Melbourne Water since 2015. Thwaites was water minister in the Bracks government when a levee wall was built to protect Flemington racecourse from flooding (the wall worked perfectly in last year’s flood) was approved. Thwaites had recused himself from any involvement in Melbourne Water’s flood review.
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