Kyabram community members packed Parkland Golf Club on Monday, May 4, for an open town meeting to address the flash floods that swept through the town in March.
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The meeting, organised by Kyabram Development Committee in partnership with Kyabram Residents and Ratepayers Action Group and Kyabram Chamber of Commerce, served as a space for residents to discuss impacts and plan strategies to mitigate impacts of future weather events.
The flash flooding event saw streets underwater and prompted 64 SES call-outs after 101.8mm of rain fell between 9am on Sunday, March 1, and 9am on Tuesday, March 3.
Kyabram Development Committee member Peter Nelson said attendees heard stories from people who were impacted, which were “to some degree, emotional”.
“There were some people there that were still feeling the impact and not back in their houses yet,” Mr Nelson said.
Kyabram Development Committee member Peter Nelson said Kyabram residents were still feeling the impacts of the March weather event.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
At the meeting, drainage maintenance emerged as a strategy for prevention.
“We need to maintain a fully functional drainage system in Kyabram and make sure it works when it’s needed to work,” Mr Nelson said.
Another topic of concern involved new developments taking place around town and whether they would cause further drainage issues, alongside discussions about the sole diesel pump which had been vandalised before the weather event.
Campaspe Shire Council infrastructure director Kate Lemon said council provided some information regarding the recent weather conditions to the Kyabram Development Committee before the public meeting.
Mr Nelson said the discussion resulted in development committee members pledging to pursue these issues with Campaspe Shire Council.
He hopes the meeting will lead to a small advisory group or a subcommittee of the development committee that will take these discussions further as a specific agenda.
“It was a fruitful meeting, it was a meeting we had to have. We’ll continue on it and it’ll be on the development committee’s agenda.”
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