Spring storms bring their mucky mess

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
THE beginning of spring has seen the best rainfall and the worst floods in more than 15 years, which has closed roads, damaged homes and hampered SES and council clean-up efforts across the valley.
Yarra Ranges Council received about 100 calls for assistance on Sunday and 70 to 80 per cent of those were related to tree damage.
A council spokeswoman said the council had about 30 people working around the clock on the weekend including tree crews and contractors.
“Most roads have been reopened now but the information I have is that Myers Creek Road in Healesville is still closed with several trees down on the road,” the spokeswoman said.
She said that Gulf Road, north of Yarra Glen, was believed to still be closed due to flooding.
Council was working to clear the roads of tree debris as soon as possible.
Healesville SES responded to more than 45 call-outs over the weekend.
Geoff Stott from Healesville SES said this included a whole roof that had blown off a house in Wallaby Way, Badger Creek.
He said there were also houses in Myers Creek Road, Ryan’s Road and Eleva Road that had large trees either fall on or through the roof.
Upper Yarra SES responded to a few damaged buildings over the weekend and a lot of trees over the roads and flooding.
Russell Wulf from Upper Yarra SES said the worst was still to come.
“As it starts to dry out and the wind picks up, that’s when we’ll get busy,” he said.
“The police have been everywhere up here, with the water and floods.”
Mr Wulf said the intersection at Settlement Road and Corduroy Road in Yarra Junction was closed on Sunday night.
He said they were also called out to help a sheep stuck in a paddock.
Marysville SES were kept busy too with the Steavenson, Acheron and other rivers around Taggerty and Buxton breaking their banks.
Marysville SES deputy controller Jo Hunter said the SES responded to their first call at around noon on Saturday and, with assistance from Alexandra SES continued into the night resuming on Sunday with road closures and sandbagging.
“Mareeba Avenue at Buxton was worst hit, with water right up to the doorways on some houses and two flooded,” Ms Hunter said.
“It looks like a sea of house boats and with another couple of inches I think all the houses would have been flooded,” she said.
Ms Hunter said many of the residents had prepared for the worst, and it stood them in good stead. Yesterday morning there were still minor flood warnings for the Yarra River at Coldstream and Yarra Glen, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The river at Coldstream was expected to peak at about 4.2 metres on Monday, and 4.3 metres at Yarra Glen.
At Millgrove the Yarra River was just below the minor flood level, and Healesville’s Watts River was below the minor flood level and falling.