Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to say a few words on the recent flood event that some in Victoria are still going through. My electorate was not spared. Over about 48 hours, Bendigo received 117 mils of water. Now, to people from Queensland, that doesn't sound like a lot, but for my town it is. The average rainfall for Bendigo in October is usually 41 mils. After receiving that volume of water in 24 hours, our rivers, creeks and road systems did not cope. The damage to local infrastructure was enormous. Roads were washed away. Every single highway into Bendigo was severely damaged in some way. The Axedale bridge was gone; it has since been temporarily repaired, but there's a lot of work still to do.

It wasn't just our roads that copped it; there was also damage to a number of homes. Whilst not as bad as in Rochester and Echuca, who are still on alert, we did lose about 40 homes in Heathcote and a number in Marong. Many in my community feel lucky that it wasn't worse, but the damage sustained by local infrastructure is enormous, and local councils are still counting the cost. From Kyneton in the south all the way to Elmore in the north, it's hard to find someone that was not affected. The community has reacted to help those in need, but more needs to be done. What alarms me the most is that people know this is not the last significant flood event we will go through, and we need to stand with people to get better prepared for events in the future.