FIGHT FOR FLOODING FIX
Marshall land owners are still waiting
AN ELDERLY Marshall farmer is worried he won’t live to see an urgent fix to flooding on his property after a three-year battle with State Government for repairs to save his land.
Dick Wylie, who’s battling ill health after a recent stroke, said his and a neighbour’s farm land had virtually been rendered useless, with stock loss and land damage leaving them hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket.
“Their last excuse was they were waiting for summer to start but summer time is half over and nothing has been done whatsoever,” he claims.
“They’ve admitted they were wrong and told us they were held up waiting for permission from the railways to start fixing it, but that is a lot of bloody garbage.
“Half a dozen truckloads of dirt and a bobcat and they could get it done in half a day.
“On ANZAC Day my wife, children and I were up at 1.30am getting the cows and small calves out of the water.
“We were up to our knees in it due to the rain the night before, it just came straight from the Waurn Ponds Creek, under the railway line and covered our properties.”
The bureaucratic stand-off heated up in September 2016 when thousands of litres of Waurn Ponds Creek water inundated farm properties at Marshall, with more than 200ha of farmland, between Norcott Rd and Woolscour Lane flooded from the west.
The construction of the new Breakwater Bridge saw VicRoads install a culvert under the train line, which now allows the water to gush onto the farmer’s land.
This is despite repeated warnings by the farmers prior to construction.
In April 2017, Minister for Roads Luke Donnellan said VicRoads couldn’t commence work at the site until they had permission from City of Greater Geelong.
But on Friday the City said “a solution is yet to be finalised, and therefore the City is unable to give permission for works to commence”.
The third government body involved — the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (CCMA) — has previously failed to respond to repeated requests for comment.
Neighbour and fellow flood victim Colin Chapman said every time it rained he lost 80 of his 100 acres to floodwater.
“We can’t farm our land. It’s been rendered useless because of the constant flooding and damage,’ Mr Chapman said.
VicRoads now says works are “expected to begin in March 2018, pending approval from all authorities”.
VicRoads Acting Regional Director for the South West Emma Miller-Olsen said the works by VicRoads were preliminary to deal with the current flooding issue associated with the rail culvert installed as part of the Breakwater Road project.
The CCMA and CoGG would investigate future works for the whole flood plain.
“As the works are located within a known flood plain, environmental and hydrological investigations are necessary to ensure there is no adverse affect to the water flow in the area,” she said.
“These investigations are well under way and are expected to be completed this month.”