How flood managers see things: Perceptions of floods and flood management amongst Local Government actors in Victoria How flood managers see things: Perceptions of floods and flood management amongst Local Government actors in Victoria Dr. Brian Cook Lecturer (Assistant Professor) School of Geography Faculty of Science The University of Melbourne Dr. Brian Cook Lecturer (Assistant Professor) School of Geography Faculty of Science The University of Melbourne

O UTLINE OF THE P RESENTATION 1.Why we engaged with local government? 2.How we engaged with local government. 3.General findings. 4.Points for further discussion.

W HY ENGAGE WITH L OCAL G OVERNMENT ?

H OW THIS RESEARCH WAS UNDERTAKEN

G ENERAL FINDINGS 1.Community and local council responsibilities. 2.Levee construction and maintenance. 3.Betterment

1. C OMMUNITY AND L OCAL G OV. RESPONSIBILITIES “I think there is a need to pass some responsibility back to individuals through building design and location, so that it's not just borne by ratepayers, taxpayers”. “You've got to be joking me. There's no onus put on any individual to prepare themselves or their properties or understand the risks or the hazards they're actually supposed to, at all. We're a nanny state”. “I think very much what we seem to be seeing from the authorities trying to push down to the individual, to get them to take responsibility for their own actions. We will provide you with the information and advice about what is occurring as best we can. But essentially when push comes to shove, you are on your own”. “I am certainly aware that in our case we overstepped our level of responsibility for that event - way, way, way, way, way, way too far. However, the decision to undertake the things we did was taken because of the lack of direction from anyone else. So we undertook a far more active role in the event as far as a - we went from being a support agency to a lead agency”.

2. L EVEE CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE “No one wants to look after them and I don't think anyone does really look after them from an inspection to that [viewpoint]. I certainly know DSE and Parks are notorious for saying it's the other party's responsibility. That's in no one's interest. So state government needs to work out and for the most part, levee construction and maintenance should be the responsibility of the appropriate land manager. “I think, well, local government should be responsible for the maintenance of them. Yeah, but then there is more to it than that, in that the legal implications of constructing them should not rest with them”. “We have no capacity to build flood infrastructure really. We struggle to maintain the roads”. “They can legislate to change [responsibilities] and impose it on us, but we don't necessarily have the mechanism to fund it. We have to put our rates up, or have to consider other ways, we can look after in a practical sense at the local level, but this is a policy decision for other people, not for me”.

3. B ETTERMENT Minimum standards “Sometimes like for like but more of our funding to do it has come from the Federal Government and that is clear it has to meet current engineering standards. So it's not quite like for like. It will do the same job, in some cases it's a better outcome because you've got to meet minimum standards”. Like for like “in terms of the repairs and stuff that we've done, they're probably not going to prevent a flood from happening or prevent the damage again because, basically, we've just restored what was there previously. That's pretty much all that we were able to do, when you'd rather go and fix it properly, but we weren't allowed to do that”. “Well NDRRA, National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, federally, replaces like for like, doesn’t work on betterment, big problem - big problem. Because if you've got a shitty railway bridge, why replace it with a shitty railway bridge? Why not upgrade it so that actually water can go through, instead of holding it back?”

Questions for further discussion.

F IRE ON THE M IND … R ESILIENCE ? “it's clear that people don't take as much personal responsibility to respond to flood as they do for fire” “if you didn't understand that, that's the worst fire conditions that have ever been seen, you've got rocks in your head. But no, the Commission never blamed any [public] individuals, you didn't prepare your property well enough for that or you didn't leave or anything like that. It was all about what the agencies had to do or didn't do that got the flack. You lost all the ministers, you lost Nixon, you lost bloody Russell Rees, the chief officer of the CFA. What is he going to actually do to save any of those lives? Absolutely nothing, nothing. But that's all it was - it was a witch hunt. It got rid of all the top people and then they said well it'll be better next time. You've got to be joking.” “That is a big ask, because this will come down to, people will say ‘oh but we do it for fire’, yes you do it for fire, and you're very fire prepared, but the next major event won't be a fire, won't be a flood, it'll be something you're not expecting. Because the flood wasn't being expected. So we're all prepared around fire, but we're not prepared for the unexpected”.

H OW WELL ARE WE PREPARING FOR THE NEXT BIG ONE ? Are we better off now? “Yeah definitely without a doubt, yeah in terms of what - when I say that, the impacts that they'd experience if they had a similar event today, they'd be much better off”. “If the same amount of flow came down the river, the same impact would happen again to properties and stuff like that. Community's attitudes might have changed, they might actually listen, but are they preparing for the next one - probably not now. They might have been six months after, but that preparation's probably gone out the window from an emergency management point of view. You only worry about what's at your doorstep. That's the culture right across. It doesn't matter what the hazard is”. “Oh absolutely yes, because the memories are vivid in everyone's minds. In five years' time it would be a challenge and it's a challenge that we're preparing for by documenting everything that's vivid in our memories because as time passes, you know…”.

W HERE TO FROM HERE ? Key challenges – as expressed by those involved in Local Government flood management. W HERE TO FROM HERE ? Key challenges – as expressed by those involved in Local Government flood management.

Thank you. I look forward to questions and further discussion. Thank you. I look forward to questions and further discussion.