By Callum Ludwig
It was a concerning case of déjà vu for the Upper Yarra as heavy rain and flooding in October wreaked havoc in the region.
Rainfall statistics from the Bureau of Meteorology recorded 52mm of rain in Yarra Junction between 9am Tuesday 3 October and 9am Wednesday 4 October.
On Tuesday afternoon, the roads were the first to be impacted with part of the Warburton Highway at the traffic lights in Woori Yallock giving way, believed to be because of a burst water main underneath.
Deputy Controller of the Upper Yarra SES Unit said they were first paged to it as a landslip.
“VicRoads had a crew on scene that was waiting for other crews to arrive, so we did traffic management with Victoria Police until we could hand the scene back over to Vic Roads for them to get it sorted,” she said.
“When we got there, people were still driving over it, which I guess with the state of the roads out there at the minute, it just looked like a normal pothole so we can’t really discredit people for doing that,”
“It looked just like a little divot, but we had to get people off it before it became a bigger problem.”
VicRoads crews were on the site on Thursday 5 October making progress on the repairs with signage and traffic management out to indicate that the road is down to one lane both ways while works are underway.
Ms Brunton said we also saw the same roads that often flood after heavy rain do so again.
“We have the same spots that flood over and over again; along the highway in Millgrove and Settlement Road out the back of Yarra Junction namely,” she said.
“The one thing that we just say over and over again is that if it’s flooded just don’t drive through it, it’s not worth the risk,”
“You don’t know what’s in there, you don’t know if the road is collapsed beneath the water, you’ve got no idea so it’s better to be safe and just avoid the area.”
