Yarra Valley communities suffered significant flooding again in December and January, with inundation leading to flooding of properties, roads, and sports facilities, exposing inadequate drainage infrastructure.
It’s why in Parliament I called on the Government to urgently upgrade state-owned drain infrastructure and to work harder to influence Yarra Ranges Council to upgrade aged and inadequate drainage, especially on Council roads where drains are repeatedly blocked or inadequately sized, creating a flooding risk.
Lilydale Open Drain is just one of many concerns impacting hundreds of residents. Over a year ago I wrote to Melbourne Water requesting Lilydale Open Drain be upgraded to mitigate flooding of homes and streets in this vicinity.
Melbourne Water advised ‘it was responsible for ensuring the open drain conveys water effectively [and] maintaining the hydraulic function of the drain and
culverts’ – which is not happening.
The hydraulic functioning of the drain and culverts are compromised because the culverts are always full of weeds, rubbish, and other debris, not only
making this a safety hazard but has residents living in fear of being flooded every time it rains.
Important to note, Yarra Ranges Council owns the Lilydale Open Drain and is responsible for maintaining the built structure of the culvert at Nelson Road Lilydale. It’s no longer fit-for-purpose despite years of advocacy on behalf of the community.
I’ll continue to call for Lilydale Open Drain to be upgraded, perhaps with a larger single-span drain to help mitigate flooding risk, otherwise there’s
no chance the drain will function effectively.
I acknowledge Lilydale Flood Watch and Coldstream Flood Watch groups who are working tirelessly in their advocacy to get drainage and flooding issues addressed for our community.
As if being hit with flooding to kick-start 2024 was not enough, our collective resilience was tested again last week with Yarra Valley communities enduring widespread power outages after the collapse of parts of the State’s fragile transmission network.
Last year, Victoria’s energy watchdog, Energy Safe Victoria, revealed the State Labor Government failed to ensure critical maintenance works were undertaken across the energy network.
Despite being in power for nearly a decade, the Labor Government has mismanaged the grid and failed to ensure resilience of the state’s energy network.
People deserve to know why the Labor government ignored repeated warnings from its own energy watchdog about vulnerabilities in the system, and for their government to prioritise a resilient, reliable, and affordable energy network that will keep the lights and fridges on year-round.
I’ll keep working hard to hold the government to account for these infrastructure upgrades that our community needs.
