BY REBECCA THISTLETON
rebecca.thistleton@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Flood risk for 80,000
A REPORT shows Melbourne Water and Glen Eira Council have failed to take a lead role in preventing future floods.
The report, by Glen Eira Council stated Melbourne Water has identified about 80,000 properties at risk of overland flooding and 40,000 properties with buildings at risk of flooding above floor level, as Glen Eira lies on a flood plain.
The council tabled the report into the severe February 2011 floods at a recent council meeting and has called on Melbourne Water to increase drainage capacity.
Melbourne Water has blamed Glen Eira’s flooding on previous planning decisions in flood plain areas. Areas flooded in February closely matched locations marked as trouble spots by Melbourne Water 11 years ago on a map of flood-prone areas. At the time, the council made changes to planning controls and wrote to Melbourne Water expressing concern and requesting capacity improvements to prevent flooding.
Council papers showed February’s floods were ‘‘extremely severe’’ and caused the underground system to overflow.
After the floods, the council received more than 700 inquiries and requests for drainage improvements. More than 150 homes and businesses were inundated and more than 90 were storm damaged.
Council spokesman Paul Burke said the council’s drains were dependent on Melbourne Water’s drains because the water flowed into them. ‘‘The council continues to advocate for the state government to improve the capacity of Melbourne Water drains to reduce the risk of flooding in areas covered by Melbourne Water drains,’’ he said.
Melbourne Water’s manager of floodplain services, Phillip Neville, said it was unfortunate Glen Eira was developed without a defined path for excess water to run off. ‘‘In older suburbs where no consideration was given to reserving areas for overland flows, existing properties can be in the flow path and are susceptible to overflow in severe storms,’’ he said.
A letter to the council from Melbourne Water stated there was a 25 to 30 year plan to reduce flood risk for drainage systems with an ‘‘extreme’’ or ‘‘intolerable’’ flood risk and flood mitigation works were underway.
In 2005, the state government released the Storm Water Management Audit. Glen Eira was hit with a scathing report and suggested improvements. Mr Burke said the council has since worked to improve drainage and had allocated $3 million
towards a drainage improvement program last year.
He said revised flood mapping was being used by Melbourne Water to update planning controls, which would take flood plains into account for future housing developments.
Ducking the issue
Don Dunstan has been trying to replace a storage bungalow in his Ormond backyard for 10 months. But Mr Dunstan, president of the Glen Eira Residents’ Association, has been unable to secure the planning permit he needs for a new building due to confusion over storm water drains on his property.
The permit has stalled because neither the council nor Melbourne Water can identify where underground stormwater drains lie between his and his neighbour’s home. Mr Dunstan has paid a surveyor to try to locate the drain to no avail. Melbourne Water has told him records showing the exact location are unreliable.
Mr Dunstan described the handling of storm water management responsibilities by council and Melbourne Water as ‘‘duck shoving’’. His issue is representative of storm water problems that could affect 80,000 homes in the area during heavy rain, such as that experienced earlier this year.
Mr Dunstan said there were properties and parkland across Glen Eira which faced storm water problems every time heavy rain fell as the suburbs were on a flood plain and lacked appropriate drainage.
He said Glen Eira Council denied the storm water drainage was their problem, and had approved development in the past on areas without appropriate drainage.
Rebecca Thistleton
Glen Eira Debates 
July 11, 2011 at 12:29 PM
Passing the buck is habitual. At least Melbourne Water is providing a somewhat different version of events to councils version. They’ve probably had a gut full of being blamed for everything.
July 11, 2011 at 3:38 PM
Paul Burke is half-right, and Melb Water is half right, because any solution is going to need both parties to work together to help the problem. That may have no solution in some areas, other than raising your floor higher that the predicted flood level. With climate change coming, predicted to bring fewer but more tropical like down pours this maybe a hard to evaluate.
Were Glen Eira has fallen over is in there rampart belief that any development is good development. For the past 50 plus years of higher density increases little if no thought has been given to stormwater run off. Almost all developments these days have no natural permeable areas were water can enter the ground and be slowed.
The rash increase of subterranean car parking areas to maximize developers profits has been blindly sanctioned. Even though local residents bring flooding up time and time again at planning meeting. They are always dismissed as idiots that know nothing.
The answer may need a barrage on the Yarra river down stream from Finders Street station, and another on the Elwood canal, as well as the return of some storm water retarding wetland areas throughout the district like the one in Esternwick Park.
This is enough to frighten the wits out the CEO and Mr Burke. These two are dinosaurs working on values from midway through last century. They are clearly not up to this. Its time they moved on and let some modern thinking into Glen Eira. Otherwise nothing will change.
July 11, 2011 at 6:32 PM
wise words glennie. i agree with your ‘rampant belief’ idea. the other one that is ingrained in the existing administration is that public common areas are somebody else’s responsibility unless council owns the land. every justification from the council states that they do not own this or that property. hence, they can’t do much about such land. and when they are given a piece of land they are likely to flog it. to manage land on somebody else behalf they are not keen. this attitude is particularly ingrained in the existing administration. and that is what is called good governance. no risk.
July 11, 2011 at 7:01 PM
I do not think they are up to many technical stuff. After all the main qualification for jobs in Glen Eira Council are administration and bureacratic paper shuffling. Someone characterised jobs as ‘those who can do, those who can’t teach, those who can’t teach administer’. And some may exhibit Peter Principle of his/her incompetency level. But how do you change this state of affairs?
July 11, 2011 at 10:26 PM
Vote for progressive councillors, don’t be fooled by conservatives in progressive clothing.
July 12, 2011 at 12:37 PM
As a general rule you should focus on what you can control. Council is responsible for much of the local drainage network, Council is the Responsible Authority deciding planning applications, Council determines when it allows 100% site coverage and 0% permeable surface. Glen Eira Council has a poor record, as documented in the State Auditor-General’s report “Managing Stormwater Flooding Risks In Melbourne”. Some recent comments by select Councillors suggest there is no desire to change either.
While the intensity of the downpour in Horsham has been described as a one-in-200-year event, that is not the case for Melbourne. As we keep concreting over more of Glen Eira each year the problem worsens. Actually in a number of areas, roads are a big problem because they are higher than the surrounding land. Instead of acting as a channel for excess water and overland flows, they divert the water onto neighbouring properties. It is of course impractical to sue everybody responsible for this mess, but we don’t have to keep making the same mistakes.