At a community meeting last week, Mr Walsh heard widespread concerns that years of damage to levee banks could leave the district exposed to flooding as rain keeps falling across the state and river levels keep rising.
He says under SES guidance, the meeting also established sites for future sand dumps if sandbagging becomes necessary and agreed to appeal for camping to be closed until the flood threats have passed.
“It’s not a crisis yet, but the memories of 2010-11 are still raw in many minds in this part of the state,” Mr Walsh says.
“No-one wants a repeat of that.”
“Which is why tonight’s proactive meeting was such a big step in the right direction — with sand dump sites earmarked for the land between the hotel and community hall and at the tennis courts,” he says.
“The damage, and subsequent wear and tear to the levee banks has been largely caused by campers and off-roaders, who knock down the tops of them so they can get their vehicles up and over.
“To fix that you must have an excavator to get the job done properly and trying to do it when the water is already there is way too late.”
Mr Walsh said the meeting also called for boat speed limits on the river to be drastically reduced on a temporary basis to avoid excessive wakes further eroding levee banks.
He said banning camping until further notice would also be a critical component in this preventative strategy, as well as being a safety issue, especially for city people who might not fully grasp the critical role of the levee banks.
“If the levees fail early in the piece, that floodwater would race downstream as far as Cohuna almost immediately,” Mr Walsh said.
“I will be stressing with Ms Symes the need to take this seriously now, today, and get repair crews on the river this week,” he says.
“This is a matter for emergency services, even though the areas we are discussing belong to Parks Victoria.
“This is not an environmental debate, this is proactively urgent work that might play a significant role in not just protecting community property, but also protecting local lives.”
