Study drives flood action

A STUDY will determine if the construction of a wall, a levee system or other infrastructure could save the town of Latrobe from major flooding in the future.

Latrobe was hit particularly hard in Tasmania’s devastating flood emergency last year, with one resident drowning in her home and another 100 rescued by boat and helicopter.

One hundred houses and businesses were inundated with floodwater, farms were ravaged and livestock lost.

The Latrobe Council has recruited consulting firm Entura for the $170,000 study — funded through a $100,000 Latrobe Council contribution and $70,000 from the State Government — which is due back in April next year.

“If the study comes back and says, ‘no, we cannot mitigate against future flood events’, then we will make flood warnings our priority,” Mayor Peter Freshney said.

“If the report finds the town can be protected, we will then seek contributions from the state and federal government and, of course, the council, to construct whatever it is which will provide that protection,” Councillor Freshney said.

“We owe it to the community to either rule physical protection out or work our backsides off to build it.

“If that is a wall around Latrobe so be it — we will commit whatever we need to.”

A report into the June 2016 floods found local authorities failed to properly respond to the emergency and warnings were inadequate.

Former auditor-general Mike Blake said emergency management planning and risk management worked well in Launceston.

But he said “this was not the case at Latrobe where we noted that appropriate plans existed but may not have been acted on”.

The Latrobe and Kentish councils both applied for funding to investigate if a levee system, similar to the one that saved Longford from damage in last year’s emergency, would also stop Latrobe and Railton being inundated.

But Latrobe general manager Gerald Monson was advised there was only $400,000 left under the current National Partnership Agreement for disaster mitigation.

The Longford levee cost $5.4 million to build 12 years ago.

“That money was more than repaid when the township was protected,” Mr Monson said.

Latrobe Council is lobbying to have contributions to the National Partnership Agreement reverted to a three-way split between the Commonwealth, state and local government.

Currently only state and local governments contribute to the agreement.