Fortunately, Casterton was spared the flooding that many other towns in Wannon have experienced in the last month. However, when future flood events do threaten Casterton, how prepared and informed will we be?
.At a flood briefing I attended in Casterton on Friday 14 January a question was asked of the local Catchment Management Authority on the level of the water in the Wannon River. Alarmingly an answer could not be given and as I have travelled the Wannon electorate visiting other flood prone areas I have encountered a similar response.
To put it simply, flood monitoring infrastructure in Wannon is extremely inadequate, and in many areas non‐existent.
The flooding throughout western Victoria has highlighted the dire need for additional funding for the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to ensure that they are well‐equipped to adequately monitor and predict fast‐moving intense weather events.
Townships such as Casterton, Beaufort and Skipton and many waterways, including the Wannon, Glenelg, Hopkins, Merri and Moyne Rivers, as well as Mount Emu Creek, do not currently have adequate flood monitoring systems, resulting in poor information for these communities regarding the expected flood levels and flood time estimates.
South west Victoria also has very few online BOM rainfall stations.
In the most recent floods people in Beaufort, Skipton, Wickliffe and surrounding localities could have saved more of their possessions had they received an indication of the flood level, and estimated time of arrival. These communities were caught off guard yet again and some of these people have lost everything, in some cases, for the second, or the third time in six months.
As the meeting on Friday 14 January showed, this could easily have been the case in Casterton too.
As a result, I have written to the Gillard government arguing that BOM needs increased resources to enable it to provide earlier warning of floods, as this is crucial for minimising potential flooding in our region in the future. I’m sure, like me, you are looking forward to their positive response.
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