By Amy Hume
AFTER decades of flood damage Seymour has finally been given the green light for a flood levee bank to protect the town against re-occurring flooding.
Water Minister Peter Walsh visited Seymour last Wednesday to announce an additional $730,000 towards the design and construction of a flood levee bank.
“This will fund stage one of the project, including detailed design, reports and planning approvals for a flood levee bank,” Mr Walsh said.
“It will include preparation of cultural heritage and environmental management plans and the design of a levee to withstand a flood that statistically occurs only once in 100 years.”
Seymour has a history of flooding from the Goulburn River and Whiteheads Creek and a 2001 flood study estimated an annual average cost in flood damages at $490,000.
About 400 buildings are vulnerable in the event of a major flood including most of Seymour’s commercial precinct, some residential areas and Seymour Memorial Hospital which are included in the flood overlay.
Mr Walsh said the flood mitigation project would reduce the town’s vulnerability to flooding and will provide economic and social benefits in the town.
The total project cost is in the region of $6.2 million across four years and will be jointly funded by the State, Federal and local governments.
Mitchell Shire Council is expected to fund about a quarter of the project costs.
Goulburn Broken Catchment Authority statuary planning and floodplain manager Guy Tierney said the construction of a levee bank was the best approach to the town’s flood issues.
“This was the only realistic option to minimise flooding and suffering,” he said.
Mr Tierney said under the current flood overlay for Seymour, people must build a certain height above the flood levels but these conditions will “relax” once the project building is under way.
“Goulburn Broken Catchment Authority, and council, is not opposed to someone applying to build at a lower level if they want to take a risk,” he said.
“It would be subject to an agreement with the landowner.”
Mayor Graeme Coppel said the ease of building conditions under the flood overlay is welcome news for many in the area.
“Businesses and investors can start planning now - they don’t have to wait,” he said.
He said previously there was no room for expansion and town growth.
Mayor Coppel said the current projected growth for Seymour, of less than 500 people in five years, was “not acceptable.”
“Seymour won’t grow until the flood levee is built. This will complete the town on terms of strategic planning,” he said.
Seymour Toyota dealer principal Graeme Dove said the flood overlay has restricted businesses from subdividing, rezoning and building for years.
“This is a step in the right direction,” he said.
“This has really opened up opportunities for the town. [Seymour Toyota], along with others, will expand.”
He said the project opens Seymour to the possibility of more growth, tourism and developments, but it has taken a long time to get there.
Despite the uphill battle for a flood levee bank not everyone is keen to see this amount of funding poured into one town.
Former Mitchell Shire councillor Robert Gordon said there were numerous projects and works in towns in the south of the shire that were not getting the same attention.
Mr Gordon said Wallan was still waiting for infrastructure to cope with the projected growth boom including a pool and a permanent premise for its library among other things.
“Council is spending Wallan’s money up north,” he said.
“I don’t believe ratepayers in the central and southern wards should have to pay for this.
“It should be by special charge for Seymour residents or those in flood zones that will have their properties increase in value through the construction of a levee bank.”
While Mayor Coppel was pleased to see the flood levee bank project move ahead, he admitted that there were other works in the shire that also desperately needed attention.
He said there was about $18 million in major road works and upgrades that need to be completed in Kilmore for which council does not currently have the funding.
A council spokesperson said council will continue to apply for grants for the levee bank and other projects.
