Council & Business
1 December, 2022
Carisbrook levee praised for flood performance
Despite controversy surrounding the 10-year project to establish a flood levee in Carisbrook, the levee has been praised for preventing parts of the Carisbrook township from being inundated in October. Carisbrook experienced severe riverine flooding...
Despite controversy surrounding the 10-year project to establish a flood levee in Carisbrook, the levee has been praised for preventing parts of the Carisbrook township from being inundated in October.
Carisbrook experienced severe riverine flooding and residents were evacuated on October 13, as emergency services prepared for the worst as water levels in Deep Creek, which had already broken its banks, continued to rise.
While a number of residents evacuated, only a handful of houses along Bucknall Street which runs parallel to Deep Creek were inundated, with the flood levee credited for diverting overland water flow around the town.
The levee was designed as a result of the 2011 flooding of Carisbrook, which saw residents evacuated and hundreds of homes under water.
At the time of the October flooding, three of the levee’s four stages had been completed, with the final stage underway.
Carisbrook Fire Brigade Captain and resident Ian Boucher said he had been sceptical of the levee and its effectiveness, but noted its impact during the recent flood event.
“I was very sceptical about the levee and whether it would be effective but after the recent flooding, the levee certainly protected Carisbrook,” he said.
“At the moment the levee is not in its completed form but for what it was, it certainly protected Carisbrook and I couldn’t believe the amount of water it stopped from coming into the town.”
As it stands, the levee along Pleasant Street from the Pyrenees Highway to the railway line and High Street from the railway line to Church Street is complete, with works on the final stage scheduled to be completed in February next year.
While acknowledging the levee’s effectiveness, Captain Boucher said he was unsure whether there were enough culverts to manage water flow beneath the Pyrenees Highway.
“The question I have around the levee is whether there are enough culverts going underneath the Pyrenees Highway,” he said.
“There was a lot of water coming through that culvert when the levee wasn’t even completed and once the levee is operating and working fully, you’d imagine there’ll be even more water moving through it.
“I’ll be the first to admit the levee certainly protected Carisbrook, but I’m still sceptical about the number of culverts and whether there need to be more to enable that water to flow.”
Captain Boucher said without the levee, in his view Carisbrook would have flooded again.
“If the levee wasn’t there Carisbrook would have got wet feet again, not to the extent it did in 2011 I don’t think, but certainly water would have flooded parts of the township,” he said.
“The levee is the first line of defence and last time the town flooded, the main drain overtopped but this time, it was only about a third full and that’s because of the water the levee diverted.”
Captain Boucher said while the levee may be a reassurance to residents in the event of future heavy rainfall, many in the community are still feeling the impacts of the 2011 flood.
“I think that as soon as it rains, people still remember the 2011 event and their minds go back to that,” he said.
“With the evacuation side of things this time around it just brought back a heap of memories for people, it’s a hard thing to deal with.”
Carisbrook resident and fellow fire brigade member Phil Leech echoed Captain Boucher’s sentiment, saying the levee made a difference.
“The levee certainly made a big difference for the houses on the south side of Carisbrook for sure, they’re normally under water fairly early if there’s a flood but the levee helped them,” he said.
“I don’t think the levee saved the town so to speak but it certainly helped, I had concerns water was going to run down into town through the Pyrenees Highway.
“Compared to past floods this one seemed a lot more aggressive, the water was moving faster I thought and made more mess as it came through.
“I was fairly concerned we were going to have a fair bit more drama than we got, I was pretty happy with what we got — I don’t think people realise how close it was.
“The levee is not the be all and end all, but it’s a fairly good option.”
The Maryborough SES unit had been monitoring water levels in the levee throughout the flood event and unit controller Darren Cooper said if the levee had not been in place, the overland flow of water and riverine flood would have met and flooded Carisbrook.
“We could see the amount of water the levee was diverting and for those of us in the command centre seeing footage of that, we believe it had a definite impact on stopping Carisbrook from flooding,” he said.
“The water breached right at the top end of Bucknall Street and if you’d have added the water that was coming down overland, I think that would have been sufficient for multiple houses in Carisbrook to be severely inundated.
“We can only assume that when the levee is fully completed, it will perform as well as it’s expected to.”
While the levee is not yet completed, Central Goldfields Shire Council CEO Lucy Roffey said the organisation has already been in discussions with VicRoads around replacing the bridge over Deep Creek, to further mitigate future flooding.
“The levee is one of the main mitigation items for Carisbrook and most of the minor works we had planned have been completed,” she said.
“We are also looking at the bridge that goes over the creek on the Pyrenees Highway however that is a VicRoads bridge and they’ve advised it’s not due for replacement for some time.
“VicRoads will replace that bridge when they do and when it is replaced, it will be constructed differently to help mitigate riverine flooding as recommended in all of the flood reports.”
Ms Roffey said council were pleased with how the levee performed, noting some last minute work was done with Doran Earthmoving to better prepare the final stage, which was still under construction at the time of flooding.
“We’re pretty happy with how the levee performed during the recent flooding,” she said.
“Given the levee wasn’t actually completed, we worked hard with Doran Earthmoving to compensate for the fact the levee wasn’t complete and that worked really well.
“We have to remember the amount of water that went into the levee just recently is not at the level we saw during the 2011 floods and so it will be a test if we get another flood event like we saw in 2011.”