Sea on land

By Bridget Cook
“IT looks like an inland sea.”
That was the call from residents from Tooradin whose properties were inundated with flood waters last week.
Couple Noel and Wendy Brown, who live on one of four properties on Arthurs Ayres Road, said many people didn’t realise that some Tooradin residents were affected as bad as those living in Kooweerup, Lang Lang and Bayles.
Ms Brown said their whole road and the four properties on it went under water by Friday.
“The SES came out on Saturday and they didn’t even know about Tooradin and how bad it was,” she said.
“It really was like an inland sea.
“There would be about 18 of our 20 acres under water.
“It’s now Monday and the water has moved.”
While the Browns’ home was not affected, they have had to move into their daughter’s home as they are unable to get to their house.
“We could only get in and out by boat,” Mr Brown said.
“The hot water system was under water and we had to go in to turn all the power off.”
The couple said they believed the lack of maintenance on local drains was the cause of the flooding.
“There was a lot of rain, but we didn’t have enough rain on Thursday and Friday to cause what it did,” Ms Brown said.
“The drains haven’t been cleaned out in over 20 years.”
Mr Brown said most of the water was still sitting there and hadn’t moved.
“If Melbourne Water doesn’t organise for the drains to be cleaned, it’s only going to get worse,” he said.
Melbourne Water general manager of waterways David Ryan said they were not responsible for maintaining the roadside drains that service these properties.
“We feel for the residents who have been flooded and while it’s not our drainage system, we recognise we have a role to work with the council and residents to find a solution,” he said.
“To that end we will be meeting with local residents over the next few weeks to discuss their concerns.”
Mr Ryan said in the past year they’ve carried out de-silting and weed removal works upstream of Arthur Ayres Road to assist with drainage in the area and repaired two private flood flaps that service the adjacent properties to help reduce the risk of flooding.