Ballarat was fortunate that the impact of flooding in our municipality was relatively minor, particularly when compared with that experienced by neighbouring municipalities and in other parts of the state and in Queensland.

Given that this rain event was a ‘once in a one hundred years’ occurrence with more than 200mm of rain recorded over 4 days, Council believes that the infrastructure coped relatively well, but will further analyse issues once the post-impact assessment teams have made their reports.

However, parts of our municipality were impacted by flood waters and Ballarat City Council is now in recovery mode. 

This involves a number of aspects including: determining how many properties were affected; assistance to affected residents, assessing the extent and cost of the damage.

Current reports indicate that a total of 21 properties were inundated (water in house) and uninhabitable as a result of the floods.  The worst hit area was Miners Rest (16 homes affected); areas of Delacombe and Alfredton were also affected

Visits by Council staff to flood-affected areas have determined that many more properties had some sort of flood damage.

Council has been running outreach programs since Friday focussing on areas that were flooded – Miners Rest, Main Road area and Delacombe, Banyule Drive area, Mimosa and Kalioota Sts, Alfredton.  This has involved Council staff from the Community Development and Environmental Health areas, and representatives from Ballarat Community Health, going house to house in these areas and talking to residents to determine how they were impacted and what assistance, if any, they need.

Information gathered from residents is brought back to the Co-ordination Centre at the Town Hall.

Council post impact assessment teams (15-20 staff) are also working across flood-affected areas of the municipality to determine the extent of damage to local infrastructure ie the state of roads, bridges, parks, creeks walking trails/paths etc.

Insurance assessors are inspecting private properties this week. We are unlikely to have an estimate on a damage bill for public infrastructure until next week.

Only one road in the municipality, Edmondson’s Road at Learmonth is still closed (near Harrison Road Learmonth).  All others are opened, however there are still hazards in terms of washaways etc on the side of roads.  Warning signs and speed restrictions may apply.

 Mayor and CEO are expected to make follow up visits to residents later this week, or early next week.

There are reports that snakes and spiders are becoming an issue at Miners Rest and Greg Parker at the Wildlife Park has been consulted.

If people have been impacted by the floods who haven’t had contact from Council, please give us a call and see what assistance we can provide 5320 5500

Council has made skips available in Miners Rest and Delacombe for removal of flood damaged household goods in areas impacted

Others in impacted areas have been given free tip passes through Council’s outreach program

Power Supply – a couple of properties in the municipality are still waiting on safety checks, but power to the majority of properties is back on; some people chose to turn their power off because they have been inundated i.e. Miners Rest. Need to get safety check before turn power back on.

Other properties had power outages which were imposed by Powercor.