TRANSCRIPT

ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE Inquiry into flood mitigation infrastructure in

Horsham — 23 August 2011

Members

Mr T. Bull Mr J. Pandazopoulos Ms J. Duncan Ms L. Wreford Mr D. Koch

Chair: Mr D. Koch Deputy Chair: Mr J. Pandazopoulos

Staff

Executive Officer: Dr C. Williams Research Officer: Mr I. Zwart

Witness

Mr D. Gowans, director, infrastructure services, Shire of Hindmarsh.

23 August 2011 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 96 The CHAIR — Our next presentation is from Douglas Gowans, director of infrastructure services at Hindmarsh shire, formerly of Golden Plains. This is a new landscape, Douglas, and I believe that you were not here earlier in the year when these flood incidents took place. You are a recent appointment over there, so congratulations on those grounds, and welcome to our public hearing this afternoon. Evidence taken at this hearing is protected by parliamentary privilege as provided by the Constitution Act 1975 and is further subject to the provisions of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003. Any comments that you make outside the hearing may not be afforded such privilege. All evidence given today is being recorded, and you will be provided with a proof version of the transcript in the next couple of weeks. Again, thank you for joining us. It is much appreciated that you are giving of your time.

Mr GOWANS — Thank you for the opportunity to present to this flooding inquiry. As you are aware, the Hindmarsh shire has the River that flows northward through the Hindmarsh shire, downstream of Horsham. It flows through the townships of and to , and then when Lake Hindmarsh is full it does potentially go on to Lake Albacutya, but that has not actually occurred in this particular flood event. The flood and storm damage from the January 2011 floods caused damage worth in excess of $22 million to our roads and drainage infrastructure, and that is obviously both a combination of the river flooding and the storm events that occurred at that time.

On the flood mitigation and monitoring infrastructure for river gauges, we are of the understanding that the Wimmera CMA is the responsible authority for monitoring river levels and environmental flows. They installed some flume gates in the Dimboola Weir in 2005 just to accommodate environmental flows. That weir is a GWMWater-owned piece of infrastructure; however, it is there primarily to create a weir pool that the township gets a recreational benefit from. It used to be there for providing water for township, and there are still a few people who pump from the river, but the major reason for that weir structure in Dimboola now is for recreational purposes. As I said, it is owned by GWMWater and had some significant damage to it at the time of the January floods.

On the river gauges, our understanding is that the levels that were being reported by the river gauges downstream of Horsham were inaccurate figures that suggested that a large flood event was going to hit Dimboola. It turned out to be that the accuracy of those gauges was not correct, and the flood event that actually occurred in Dimboola was not as significant as it was thought it was going to be in terms of what the levels were going to be down there and when the peak would come. Council believes there need to be more accurate river gauges that would inform our townships of what flood event is going to occur and what height it is going to reach. Council believes that the gauges should be maintained and operated by the Wimmera CMA.

On levees, Jeparit has a permanent protection levee that was designed to handle a 1-in-50-year event, and it has not really had any maintenance work on it for about 40 years. It is in a poor state of repair; it has got a lot of rabbit holes and a few areas where it could potentially breach. At the time of the flood event we were told we were not allowed to raise the height of that particular flood levee, and it was reported to me that it was a last-minute exercise to plug a lot of the gaps and get that levee into some sort of state of maintenance for it to actually withstand the flood event. Council believes that that levee is the responsibility of the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority; however, it is there to protect the town so we would be prepared to take responsibility for it, but we have not assigned any funds to do that.

In Jeparit the flood levee only affects one embankment of the town; therefore the push of floodwaters from that particular levee, we believe, if the levee were raised to a 1-in-100-year flood height, would not have major impacts. Obviously we would work with the CMA to make sure that was the case if we were to take on that responsibility.

The CHAIR — I think the submissions we have received to date come from townships within a municipality. Municipalities have usually seen it as their responsibility not only to own but to maintain. I was very interested, and I am glad you brought it up in relation to Jeparit because that was a question I was going to raise. Council has not transferred that over to the CMA at any stage, so I was interested to read that it was the council’s belief that it was a CMA responsibility.

Mr GOWANS — That is correct. That is what council believes. It may not be the case, but that is what council’s belief is.

23 August 2011 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 97 The CHAIR — Was, or is?

Mr GOWANS — That is what council’s belief is, that it is still the responsibility of the CMA. However, that may not be the case.

The CHAIR — In saying that, council is prepared to give consideration to the ownership and maintenance of that on behalf of the Jeparit community.

Mr GOWANS — Absolutely, and would want to be able to do that in terms of working on a waterway and having the permission to do the work that is required on that particular levee.

In terms of waterway management, obviously there was a failure at Dimboola Weir; one of the abutments failed during the flood event. We believe that this was a combination and result of the size of the event, the debris that was in the river in terms of trees and other debris and also the flume gates that were installed. We believe that also had some impact on debris. We have not had a major flood event since those flume gates went in, and we believe they may have had some impact on how the debris got caught in the weir and was not able to overtop it like it has done in previous events. This caused a major abutment failure of the river, so our stance is that we understand there needs to be a balance between habitat that the logs in the river provide and mitigating the risk of what they might do on weir infrastructure. We also need a plan in place for how we can better deal with removing those as they are coming down the river in a flood event. That may be booms in order to deflect the debris away before it actually reaches the weir and having a safe point to remove it.

There was also an issue with the Dimboola Weir in that some of the pressure was relieved by opening some of the previous accesses to billabongs and previous areas where floodwaters would go to which had been blocked up by road infrastructure or other things. They were opened in order to take the pressure off the weir. That was successful at the time and so we would like to do any remedial works needed in those particular areas — there is one area called Dingley Dell that affects the southern side of Dimboola. We would like the ability to have something like a weir structure in place so that we can remove boards to release floodwaters in a peak flood event to relieve some of the pressure.

In terms of ownership and responsibility, we believe the Wimmera CMA is the responsible authority for clearing and management of the waterways, but we believe that council should be responsible for levee banks and funded to do this.

The CHAIR — You believe council should be responsible for levee banks?

Mr GOWANS — Council should be responsible for the levee banks but is presently not funded to do that.

The CHAIR — No council is.

Mr GOWANS — That is correct.

Mr PANDAZOPOULOS — You mean for ongoing maintenance?

Mr GOWANS — Yes, for ongoing maintenance. In Jeparit we believe there would be quite a lot of capital works required to bring that levee up to a reasonable standard, so there would be a one-off capital works amount we would need to bring that levee up a really good state. Obviously we could do that through rates and normal council funding but up to now we have not been doing that.

Ms DUNCAN — Do you know of anywhere where a CMA maintains and funds levee banks?

Mr GOWANS — I am not aware of that. In terms of local knowledge, we have done some studies post the flood event with our local communities and they would like to have a lot more input into how river infrastructure and flood mitigation infrastructure is managed. In terms of an emergency situation they would love to have greater input into how their information is utilised because they believe they have a lot of good-quality information that could be used in a flood event. One of the issues we had in Hindmarsh shire was that because the incident had been raised to a regional level and was handled by the Horsham ICC, they believed that some of their information was not being used in the best manner because they were reporting it to our local MEC, municipal emergency centre, and that information then had to go up to the ICC before any decision could come

23 August 2011 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 98 back on any of the information, so the process was drawn out. They felt that their local knowledge was not being used in a timely manner; but we were just going through the processes that were required.

A lot of the locals want to clear and have some involvement in maintaining the waterway, such as clearing the weir pool areas of trees. One of their major reasons is obviously for recreational purposes, but it is also because those trees may come down at the time of a flood and the impact that would have. However, that is not going to remove all the debris that is going to come down in a flood situation. They also want to be involved in waterways management. Our flood report from the community has a recommendation, which has yet to be adopted, that they be involved in some kind of river management committee and that that information can be used by both the local government and by the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority.

The CHAIR — Is the Wimmera CMA aware of the community’s ambition and initiative in relation to their opportunity to assist in river management, or has it only been conveyed to council?

Mr GOWANS — That has only been conveyed to council; it is yet to be adopted by council. Once that report is adopted we will be involving the CMA in helping to bridge that gap between the community and the CMA in terms of what they are looking for as an outcome.

The CHAIR — Would that give rise to the establishment of a river management advisory committee? Is that where that is probably going?

Mr GOWANS — Can you repeat that question?

The CHAIR — You have a proposal to establish a river management advisory committee; that is what you speak of there?

Mr GOWANS — Yes.

The CHAIR — When do you propose to have that in place?

Mr GOWANS — As soon as we can. As soon as council adopts that recommendation we will be taking steps to make that happen. It may just be linking those community members who want to be involved in with committees that already exist that them Wimmera CMA already have in place.

The CHAIR — Thank you. Have you completed your presentation, Douglas?

Mr GOWANS — Yes, thank you.

Ms DUNCAN — There were a number of flood studies done prior to this flood — in 2003 and 2007. Have the recommendations from those flood studies now formed part of council’s local planning schemes, and have those works been done?

Mr GOWANS — Those flood studies are on council’s agenda; they definitely have been adopted by council. The recommendations that have come from those flood studies probably have not been fully implemented by council yet. We have a little bit of a backlog in terms of planning issues at our council. We do not have a permanent planner, so to meet our statutory requirements for planning we use a consultant on a part-time basis, so we have some issues in terms of our planning backlog, especially with strategic things and adoption of all the overlays and things we need to get in place. We are putting some steps into place at the moment to try to get that up to speed.

Ms DUNCAN — So those overlays have not been put in place?

Mr GOWANS — The flood overlays from those studies definitely have been put in place.

Ms DUNCAN — Okay, so building works that are going on, if they are going on in those areas, are now meeting all of those requirements — heights et cetera?

Mr GOWANS — Absolutely, yes. And obviously we do all the referrals to the catchment management authorities for any plans that come in that may be in those flood overlay areas.

23 August 2011 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 99 Mr BULL — You mentioned earlier that some of the flood warnings for some of the towns within your shire were wrong.

Mr GOWANS — Yes.

Mr BULL — And you mentioned that there needs to be a more accurate gauging system put in place. More accurate or more comprehensive? Was the issue that perhaps some of the tributaries were not being recorded appropriately?

Mr GOWANS — One of the things that we believe was an issue with the floodgates was that the information coming from them was incorrect, so there was an accuracy issue. The other thing is that we believe there should be more of those gauges.

Mr BULL — A bit of both.

Mr GOWANS — Yes, exactly. There are no active working gauges between Dimboola and Jeparit, so we believe there should be some gauges there. We would just like the information coming from the gauges upstream of Dimboola to be more accurate and to know what that information is going to mean. How that information is conveyed to the community is one of the issues we want to make sure gets addressed.

Ms DUNCAN — Who owns and maintains those gauges?

Mr GOWANS — We believe the Wimmera Catchment Management Authority does.

Ms DUNCAN — Believe, or you know?

Mr GOWANS — Council’s understanding is that it is the catchment management authority’s responsibility.

Ms DUNCAN — In your mind is there confusion over the roles that the council have and the CMA have, and is that a priority for council after the floods, just to sort out who does what?

Mr GOWANS — Yes, absolutely. Part of our flood review — again council is yet to adopt some of the recommendations and adopt that whole review — deals with that issue exactly, that we need to have a greater understanding of what the roles and responsibilities of each of the responsible authorities along the river are. A classic example is the Dimboola Weir structure itself. The weir is owned by GWMWater, it has input in terms of the environmental flows from the catchment management authority, so they determine the weir heights and council actually puts in the boards, does the actual physical work to get the weir levels correct.

The CHAIR — Only on the operations side.

Mr GOWANS — From the operations point of view only, yes.

The CHAIR — Taking Joanne’s question further, would council like to be more involved in the decision making, which they obviously see is a role the CMA currently has, and would they like to have a bigger role in the decision making in relation to flood plain development?

Mr GOWANS — I am not sure if I can fully answer that question. We believe that the role of the CMA is clear in terms of management. However, we would like the ability to manage some of those assets.

The CHAIR — Be part of the decision-making process.

Mr GOWANS — Yes, exactly. On the part of the infrastructure that is along the river that is going to have an impact on residents and township protection we want to have a role in what we can and cannot do.

The CHAIR — In looking after your rate bases.

Mr GOWANS — Absolutely, yes.

Mr PANDAZOPOULOS — Douglas, the studies in 2003 and 2008, who funded those?

23 August 2011 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 100 Mr GOWANS — I don’t know that. They were definitely a CMA study. I am not sure where the money came from.

Mr PANDAZOPOULOS — You do not know whether council sought those or they were just part of the CMA’s ongoing work?

Mr GOWANS — I am not aware, sorry.

Mr PANDAZOPOULOS — You are new to council, so you have an opportunity to have a fresh look at things. I imagine that you have come on board, you know there have been floods, and one of the first things you will have done is look back at the history and say, ‘What did we know of the area? What happened? Could we have done things differently? At the council level, was there anything we could have done to ameliorate what was missing?’. From your point of view, I am a bit surprised that we have a study in 2003 for Dimboola that says a whole lot of things and you are telling us that it is still up for council discussion.

I come from the starting point that we have a whole lot of government bodies, but as a former local councillor and MAV executive member I think local councillors stand up for the local interests, and if they are not raising their voice, then do not expect — to be blunt about it — to pass the buck to someone else to go and deliver for you. I am a bit surprised. There seems to me to be a bit of a missing link. There was a study done, with a whole lot of things. To fill in the gaps, what were the whole lot of things that were done that council was advocating for and what were things that they were after that they could not achieve because they were dependent on funding or on someone else to deliver or simply because we had a drought and everyone had their eye off the ball and had other priorities, with limited resources?

Mr GOWANS — I cannot answer for what has happened in the past. My understanding is council have adopted those flood studies, they took them seriously and they have done some of what was recommended that was their responsibility. I am not saying they have done what was in all the recommendations. We are still investigating whether there are outstanding recommendations that need to be undertaken. Council have always known that we had years of drought and that was going to change at some point. They did not have their eyes shut to that. Part of council’s role in emergency management is to look at what other events may happen. To suggest that council was not thinking about it or wanting to do anything about it would be incorrect.

The CHAIR — Thank you, Douglas. We appreciate your giving your time this morning at this public hearing.

Witness withdrew.

23 August 2011 Environment and Natural Resources Committee 101