Still on flood watch in Berrigan Shire

The conditions are being monitored by Berrigan Shire Council staff, who have promised to alert the community of any new developments.

Mayor Matt Hannan said council has done, and will continue to prepare, for the worst case scenario.

In recent weeks, that has included preparing for a major flood level event.

“Although we didn’t expect any major impacts on Barooga or Tocumwal themselves as a result of the most recent increased flows and higher river levels, we prepared for the worst,” he said.

“Those preparations included assessing critical infrastructure, servicing pumps and preparing drains again.”

Sand bagging was undertaken at the Barooga Library and traffic management plans were put in place for the Cobram/Barooga bridge in case council needed to react quickly to rising river levels.

“Council is working closely with Moira Shire to ensure our communities are as informed as they can be,” Cr Hannan said.

“The main message is to watch out for changed traffic conditions, drive to the conditions and please follow the directions of our staff, SES and police.”

Cr Hannan also reminded people an SES-issued directive to stay off the Murray River due to the swiftness of flows and emergency services access requirements needed to be complied with.

In acknowledging the extended period of time these floods have impacted the Berrigan Shire area, he noted the long and difficult hours staff have been working.

“Council staff are exhausted,” he said.

“They have been working on preparations and recovery, then more preparations and recovery for weeks now and there is no end in sight.

“They are doing a remarkable job and, though they can’t be everywhere, they are attending to everything humanly possible.

“We thank them for their commitment to keeping our communities safe.”

Cr Hannan said across the board, the community and emergency service had been “really tremendous” in their flood preparation and recovery efforts.

“Our staff have been working hard with emergency services to check pumps and other infrastructure,” he said.

“They’ve been called out to work at all hours, sometimes after midnight, and they have done a hard job really well.

“We all know the long-term recovery from this flooding is going to be expensive.

“The Country Mayors’ Association is calling on the state and federal governments to ensure the funding and resources are made available.

“When it arrives, the money will be great, but it’s the resources that are needed most.

“Councils won’t have enough resources to do the recovery works on their own, so sharing of plant and equipment will need to be arranged.”

There are still active SES warnings for communities and rural areas along the Murray River from Albury to Wentworth.

Rainfall over the past several weeks has caused renewed and prolonged flooding along the Murray and Edward Rivers and their tributaries.

Along the Murray, moderate flooding is still occurring at Corowa and Tocumwal, with minor flooding present at Albury and Yarrawonga.

At Tocumwal, the river level peaked on November 17 at 7.4m, with major flooding.

It was slightly higher than the 2016 event.

Live river data is not available for Tocumwal because of issues with the gauge at the bridge, but the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest river levels summary put it at 6.59m and falling on Monday.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority is still conducting flood operations at Hume Dam and Lake Mulwala to manage inflows from the Upper Murray, Mitta Mitta River, Ovens River and other tributaries.