The township of Creswick in the Hepburn Shire was flooded three times within six months in 2010/2011, resulting in significant property loss and disruption to business.
Some properties were inundated with over a metre of water, creating major stress and anxiety in the community.
After the floods the Creswick community established a Flood Management Think-Tank Group to explore options to reduce the risk of future flood events impacting on their town.
This ultimately resulted in the development of a Flood Mitigation and Urban Drainage Plan for Creswick, developed through the North Central Catchment Management Authority and Water Technology and many other agencies, plus strong community involvement.
The Plan ultimately recommended the construction of a series of levee banks and other flood mitigation works to provide a level of protection against the 2010–11 flood levels.
The Creswick Flood Mitigation works (stage one) are nearing completion with approximately five kilometres of earth levees having been constructed along and around the Creswick Creek to protect properties from future flood events varying in height from 300 millimeters up to 1.6 metres.
A concrete wall in excess of 200 metres in length was constructed in one location that has a smaller footprint in order to preserve rear property access.
Flood mitigation works have also been carried out in Creswick Creek to improve waterway capacity and flow involving a combination of clearing vegetation and reshaping the creek bed by removing rock and sand material, with some minor channel deepening and shaping of the creek at restricted points.
This work provides the community with a greater level of protection from future flooding and will allow creek waters to disperse more effectively, particularly when stage two works are completed to increase the waterway capacity of two bridge structures.
Funding for the works was obtained under the Natural Disaster Resilience Grants Scheme, and the total cost to implement the works is estimated at
$1.4 million.
The first year of works is being funded with $225,000 from the Victorian State Government, $325,000 from the Commonwealth Government and $100,000 from the Hepburn Shire Council.
Funding for stage two, which includes the widening of two bridges, is still pending.
