Wednesday and Thursday this week was an eye opening experience as to the true power of democracy and power of our parliament driving accountability. 

Hearings can be found here: https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/get-involved/inquiries/floodinquiry/hearings/

Panel can be found here: https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/get-involved/committees/legislative-council-environment-and-planning-committee

The hearings included: 

• Department of Transport and Planning
• Maribyrnong, Moonee Valley and Melbourne City Councils
• Retired renowned hydrographers and former Melbourne Water employees Geoff Crapper and Ron Sutherland
• Order of Australia medal recipient and president of the Victorian SES Volunteers Association Dr Faye Bendrups
• Victorian Racing Club Limited CEO and Executive General Manager
• Melbourne Water CEO and Executive Leadership Team
• Department of Justice and Community Safety; including Tim Wiebusch COO VICSES
• Victorian Planning Authority (VPA)
• Rivervue retirement village residents 
• Maribyrnong Community Recovery Committee Chair Madeleine MF Serle
• Former chair of the Melbourne Water Maribyrnong flood review committee Nick Wimbush
• Thu-Trang Tran, Chief Executive Officer Volunteering Victoria
• Rivervue Retirement Village, Tigcorp General Manager of Finance

Transcripts of each presentation will be made available on the parliamentary inquiry website, but we wanted to make this update a short summary of the key revelations that we gleaned. This is not intended to be a comprehensive or exhaustive summary. 

Maribyrnong Community Recovery Committee Chair Madeleine MF Serle:

The CRC Chair presented a compelling series of insights from the frontline highlighting that Maribyrnong simply could no longer be hidden in plain sight and that the community was investing in insuring future generations would never have to experience the events of October 14, 2022 again. 

Councils:

It is clear that there is a difference between councils and where each draw the lines of responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of their residents. With some going as far as conducting their own door knocks and welfare checks whilst others relying on SES and other agencies to complete these. 

Models:

Garbage in, garbage out, the story of old models being more accurate:

Geoff Crapper and Ron Sutherland long-time public servants and retired hydrologists presented an eye opening analysis of how analytical failures led to the catastrophic downgrading of flood extent. Their two-man analysis of Melbourne Waters numbers and ability to pin point which rain gauges and data points failed was inspiring and a true testament to a generation of caring public servants. 

Mitigation:

In the same presentation Ron Sutherland, author of the famous 1986 MMBW publication shared the previously proposed Arundel Retarding basin concept and how after 12 years of extensive study this was identified as a feasible solution to prevent flooding of 680 homes. He discussed the architectural design and how it would operate in a flood scenario. 

At this point a collective sigh of relief could be heard through the entire Maribyrnong Township, Rivervue Estate and the iconic Spring Racing carnival. This 37 year old solution which had long been cast aside was now re-tabled as a real feasible solution to prevent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of loss and immeasurable impact to mental health. 

Melbourne Water:

Geoff and Ron’s presentation was followed by Melbourne Water where the narrative followed a ‘our models were correct’, ‘the flood behaved as we expected’, ‘We follow best practice’ approach. Which was systematically torn to shreds by the committee through a series of questions which uncovered the need for further investigation. Comments attempting to invalidate Geoff and Ron were met sternly by the committee and Melbourne Water was put on notice to ‘provide a response as to why Geoff and Ron were incorrect’. If you’ve read Geoff’s submission, this is going to be a difficult task!

Supporting Upstream Mitigation:

As we have shared in many previous updates and as our petition outlines, there is a need to prevent this flood from ever happening again. Our countdown towards the next flood started on October 14, 2022 and it is a matter of when, not if the next flood will happen. 

We understand now:

• That TigCorp and Rivervue has a vulnerable population of retiree’s living in an area subject to flooding and find it challenging to secure insurance for their dwellings. They have expressed their support for upstream works to mitigate the events of October 14 repeating
• That the Race that Stops the Nation at the VRC could have never happened and may not happen in the future should climate change and river levels continue to rise and that the hundreds of millions of dollars that the industry contributes to Victoria’s economy is at risk if mitigation is not implemented
• That Melbourne Water has completed preliminary estimates of implementing upstream mitigation and estimates this will cost $200 Million a figure dwarfed by the expected cost of this flood which edges towards $1 Billion each day that passes without mitigation.

When this petition was launched we hoped that Maribyrnong would stop hiding in plain sight, 8KM from Melbourne’s CBD and that the most cherish riverside suburb would get the investment required to allow future generations to thrive in the area. We understand now that the diligence of the parliamentary inquiry committee and the process will hopefully surface the need for mitigation and outline the clear cost-vs-benefit for upstream works to be completed. It is not about blaming anyone, it is about accepting that this cannot happen again. 

Additional Links:

680 Homes inundated in Maribyrnong (source: https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/weather/victorias-2022-flood-response-called-catastrophic-failure-in-inquiry/video/8c6832bf5fa60b41bbefe3374e6d3040)

Geoff's report can be found here: https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/4a4e38/contentassets/493a50f5ea3f48b8a62c48e465e4ccfa/attachment-documents/732.1-geoff-crapper_redacted.pdf

Ron's Report can be found here: https://new.parliament.vic.gov.au/4a4ba5/contentassets/c02a7264fb8947e49224d31946ae0914/submission-documents/558.-ron-sutherland_redacted.pdf

Melbourne Water report can be found here https://yoursay.melbournewater.com.au/download_file/7436/2272