Flood funds fight

By Danielle Galvin
FARMERS in Kooweerup and Pakenham South have joined forces to launch a compensation bid after the flooding in February last year.
The group has filed a claim with the Victorian Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) as they gear up to take on Melbourne Water and the joint venture behind the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant.
In early 2010, the farmers say a levee bank of the McDonald’s Drain was removed to make way for a pipeline to the plant.
Despite repeated requests and warnings from farmers and landowners, the levee banks were not reinstated until after the devastating flooding in February last year.
Applicant Trevor Price, who has lived on his Ballarto Road Lucerne farm all of his life, said he hadn’t been able to run his business for two years.
“And I probably won’t be able to for another four or so months,” he said.
The Pakenham South farmer said the battle with the authorities had been going on a long time and that he had had no income since the floods.
“The property has never flooded before. Even during the big flood in 1934 this property was not affected,” he said.
Senior associate at Sackville Wilks, lawyer Belinda Donaldson, is spearheading the VCAT fight on behalf of the farmers. She said it was clear that they were entitled to compensation for the damage to their properties.
“This matter is simply about local farmers seeking appropriate compensation from those responsible for causing damage to their properties,” she said.
“Frustratingly, our clients have not yet been afforded an opportunity to have a fair discussion about compensation.
“At first, they were assured that they would be ‘looked after’ by those responsible and yet here we are more than 18 months after the event, and the farmers have had to resort to seeking the tribunal’s assistance to deliver them the compensation that they so clearly deserve and furthermore are clearly entitled to.”
She said in her experience, farmers had significant insight and local knowledge of what affected their properties and the likely risks. Ms Donaldson grew up in the area, and her family’s property was one of the properties affected by the 2011 flooding.
“The farmers were all aware that the failure to reinstate the bank posed a significant flood risk and they communicated not just once, but a number of times, their grave concerns for the high likelihood that their properties would be flooded,” she said.
A spokesperson for Melbourne Water said the water authority had acted in accordance with their obligations under the Water Act.
“We are acutely aware of the disruption and damage caused by the exceptional February 2011 flooding in Kooweerup,” the spokesperson said.
“Immediately after the flood, we worked to clean up and repair affected waterways and have continued to work in the area to improve the performance of the drainage system.”
A spokesperson for Thiess Degrémont Joint Venture said the matter was before VCAT for determination.