By Matthew Sims
Maribyrnong council has endorsed its submission to Melbourne Water’s review of the October 2022 Maribyrnong Flood event, which included a challenge against the “narrow” scope of the review.
During Maribyrnong council’s City Development Delegated Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 28, council passed a motion to endorse its submission.
The review would include an examination of the causes and contributors to the flood event, including any potential impacts of the Flemington Racecourse flood wall and any impact of prior works or activities in the urban catchment on flood levels, while specific policy responses, future potential mitigation measures, overall emergency responses, flood recovery, and broad planning matters would be outside the scope of the review.
Maribyrnong councillor Anthony Tran said he took issue with the narrowness of the review.
“You can not…tell me that it was a simple flood event,” he said.
“More than that, it was the loss of homes, the loss of lives, the loss of everything for so many families.
“To put them in a streamline report like this is an offence to them.”
Maribyrnong councillor Bernadette Thomas said she was disappointed in the fact that the council had to make their submission via the online portal, rather than as part of the review itself.
“We’re a significant stakeholder in this process,” she said.
“We’re still supporting residents who were affected.”
Maribyrnong mayor Sarah Carter said she believed it was “quite offensive” to the survivors of the flood for the review’s terms of reference to be limited.
“This recovery effort is going to take years,” she said.
“We’re still seeing the flow-on effects of the flood event.
“Our residents and we as community leaders want to know what steps will be taken to prevent, to mitigate, to limit damage because we know this won’t be the only flood event in our city.”
The review submission covered a number of elements, including land use planning, the construction of the Flemington Racecourse flood wall and changes to modelling and prediction systems.
