Community resilience

11.11.2022_Kerang West levee_2.jpeg

Overview

Local governments, such as Gannawarra Shire Council, provide leadership, resources and infrastructure for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

Whether it is flood, drought, bushfires or pandemics, Council helps our communities to connect with various agencies to provide support.

This page feature key resources from previous events that can be used to assist communities and agencies.

RIGHT: A levee along the western bank of the Loddon River during the 2022 floods.

2022 floods and Christmas Day 2023-January 2024 storms

Major riverine flooding of the Avoca, Loddon and Murray rivers and their tributaries between October 2022 and January 2023 impacted approximately 44 per cent of the Gannawarra Shire. 

Following these floods, Council worked with various agencies during a three-year period to assist with recovery efforts. This included repairing infrastructure damaged and supporting the wellbeing of residents.

Gannawarra Shire was also impacted by storms that affected the municipality on Christmas Day 2023 and the first week of January 2024, resulting in flash flooding of Kerang and other smaller townships.

Council produced various resources to assist with recovery efforts for both events. To learn about these resources, click on any of the headings below:

Community Support Newsletter

Council regularly produced a Community Support Newsletter to promote local recovery efforts and support available. 

To view the latest edition, please click on the image below.

Inquiry into the 2022 Flood Event in Victoria

The Victorian Parliamentary Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee investigated the state’s preparedness for and response to the October-December 2022 floods.

The inquiry looked into the flood event as a whole and the areas affected, and considered factors such as what caused or contributed to the Flood Event; emergency services; government policy; flood mitigation strategies; and the Victoria planning framework. 

To learn more about the inquiry, including its final report, please click here.

Council provided a submission to the inquiry, developed with input from residents impacted by the floods, the Gannawarra Community Recovery Committee, flood observers and Council staff. To view this submission, please click on the image below: 

Gannawarra Community Resilience Flood Recovery Action Plan

Council worked with the community to implement actions outlined in the Gannawarra Community Resilience Flood Recovery Action Plan, which guided the Gannawarra's recovery from the October-December 2022 floods.

To read the Gannawarra Community Resilience Action Plan 2023-2025, please click here(PDF, 657KB).

You can learn more about some of the flood recovery events that occurred by reading the following case studies below:

Gannawarra Flood Reflections video series

Council and Northern District Community Health partnered to produce the Gannawarra Reflections video series, which highlighted how residents were impacted by the October-December 2022 floods and how the community supported each other.

Reedy Lake

Kerang

Quinn Family Farm

Murrabit

Koondrook

Cohuna

Quambatook

One Year On

 

Gannawarra Flood Reflections Exhibition

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Photographs and drone footage captured during the 2022 floods featured in the Gannawarra Flood Reflections Exhibition, which premiered at Kerang's Sir John Gorton Library in March 2024 and travelled to various locations throughout the municipality.

Council received a significant number of items for this special exhibition, which records residents’ perspectives from what was the Gannawarra's second major flood in the space of 11 years.

All items that featured in the Gannawarra Flood Reflections Exhibition were professionally presented and returned to contributors following the exhibition’s tour, with digital images and drone footage to be retained by Council for historical purposes.

The exhibition was funded by the Victorian and Commonwealth Governments under the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) as part of the Gannawarra Community Flood Recovery Program.

To view the images that formed part of the Gannawarra Flood Reflections Exhibition, please view the video below: 

Play.JPG Click to play the video
Expand.JPGto view the video full-screen

NOTE: Please contact Council if you wish to republish any of the images featured in the exhibition.

 

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