Cr Paul Jarman was one of the councillors who spoke about the details of the flood’s impact as well as the work council had been doing to recover.
“A year ago, the scope of what we went through was over 700 animals lost, 2800 properties impacted, 58,000 hectares of land impacted, nearly 1900km of fencing destroyed, nearly 32,000 tonnes of crop lost and 27,000 tonnes of hay,” he said.
“I’m very happy to say that back in July, Campaspe Shire was able to achieve its recovery hub in full. Council has provided rate relief where possible. We’ve repaired over 1400 segments of roads through our community in 700 locations — a massive undertaking by our community and our council.”
Cr Jarman encouraged other councillors to support the motion, which included continuing the recovery service programs and events being run through council’s Flood Recovery Team.
“I asked my fellow councillors to support this document ... and let’s keep up the great work that our council’s been able to do,” Cr Jarman said.
A part of the discussion was the flood inquiry and the issues raised in the report, which were also raised there by Cr Rob Amos, Cr Christine Weller and council chief executive Pauline Gordon.
“I think the three main issues ... has been about the lack of the role of clarity and accountability, and particularly in relation to the Victorian Government’s decision to establish a temporary levee in Echuca,” Cr Weller said.
“As well as the lack of data that was shared by the Victorian Government, the government red tape and blockages hampering council’s efforts to access funding needed to repair the extensive list of damaged infrastructure and that relates in particular, I suppose, to the date that we’ve actually had to apply for a lot of these funds.”
Cr Colleen Gates noted that although there had been a lot of work done in the past 12 months, the report was evidence that there was much still to do.
“I’d just like to mention this is a very sobering report. There’s so much more that could have been included, and so it is quite difficult to summarise such a tragic event in just a few pages,” she said.
“I want to thank the community and staff so there is resilience and collaboration and determination through the flood and as this continues. It may have been one year since the flood event, but we do want to assure our community that the work on flood recovery does continue.”
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