By Callum Ludwig
With the one-year anniversary of the catastrophic June 2021 storm event in the Yarra and Dandenong Ranges coming up over 9 and 10 June, residents are reflecting on one of the worst disasters that have ever hit the region.
Power outages, fallen trees, destroyed property, flooding and devasted communication infrastructure left residents in a state of unprecedented panic, all within the midst of heavy Covid-19 restrictions.
Photographer Suzanne Phoenix got out and about in the Upper Yarra after the weather subsided, capturing the impact of the event and said she saw things she had never really seen in Warburton before.
“Lots of places were underwater, as the river had risen extremely high. There was an overwhelming amount of water around,” she said.
“There were even ducks swimming past park benches on the bank of the river.”
By 10am on Thursday 10 June 2021, nearly 4400 calls had been made to the SES across the state. 650 of those calls came into Lilydale SES, with 30 rescues requested for people trapped in their houses by trees.
Ms Phoenix said people were in disbelief.
“We ran into quite a few people, some of our neighbours and people on the street and they just couldn’t believe it and wondered what was going to eventuate,” she said.
“We actually got really lucky here as far as we didn’t get much of the wind, just a lot of water and lost power for a couple of days.”
Winds of up to 100km per hour were recorded in the event, and the Yarra River rose to a peak height of five metres.
Ms Phoenix said there were a number of outstanding community efforts despite many different challenges being faced.
“Losing power was the biggest issue of all for us in the Upper Yarra, as we had no communications. We weren’t able to get any information about what was happening and where any relief was coming from, especially with lockdown restrictions in place,” she said.
“The Warburton IGA had no power but still did an amazing job providing supplies to people, even letting them take items on credit and trusting them to come back in and pay later.”
Since the event, a number of initiatives from Yarra Ranges Council have seen community hubs go on the road, small grants provided for events, firewood and heritage logs distributed and surveys and meetings conducted to check in with storm-affected residents.
