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Questions how infrastructure affected Lockhart floods

The Lockhart Shire Council believes road and rail culverts along with a build up of debris in local creeks may have added to the extensive flooding in the shire in the last two years.

The Mayor Peter Yates say the council is now seeking meetings with the Australian Rail Track Corporation, the Roads and Maritime Service and the Murray and Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Authorities.

Councillor Yates says the shire is not sure what flood mitigation works could be carried out.

But he believes if the agencies can be shown what problems arise in times of heavy rainfall, they could be remedied.

"We believe some of the culverts are not letting the water through, underneath the rail line and also underneath the highways," he said.

"We're also worried about the build up of debris in creeks. Burke's Creek and the Brookong Creek. And we want to see if we can clean that out. Let the water flow through quickly, instead of building up and flooding our towns," he said.

A report to Griffith City Council recently said the Mirrool Creek was dredged about 20 years ago.

Councillor Yates says he does not know if the local creeks have ever been dredged, but there has been a lot of debris build up over the years which may have contributed to flooding in Lockhart and The Rock.

"If we were able to clean those creeks out, or the catchment authorities cleaned them out, this could alleviate some of the flooding that has occurred."

"We don't know what their policies are on the creeks but we don't want to do anything until we get approval. So if we put some pressure on and explain the situation to them properly, I'm sure that they will come to the party and let some sort of dredging or cleaning happen that will alleviate the problems."

Meanwhile, the Mayor is encouraging more than 100 residents of The Rock and Lockhart who were hit by the March flood to book in and speak with the council if they are still struggling with the flood recovery.

Councillor Yates says the clean-up from this year's flood continues.

"At present we still have a lot of residents that are having difficulty with insurance companies," he said.

"Just the emotion that has built up as well."

"What council's going to do over the next two to three weeks is have a meeting with residents. You have to book to come and meet with us and let's listen to what your problems are and see if we can help to solve the problem. Even just to come and talk and let the emotion out, we need to do that as well," he said.


- ABC

© ABC 2012

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