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A PERMANENT flood way under the Charlton-St Arnaud Road is expected to be built in the coming months after the apparent success of a temporary flood way.
Earlier this month Buloke Shire officers were bracing for a flood similar to September 2010, when the Avoca River peaked at 7.9 metres.
On that occasion, no works were done as the waters approached the town, and houses were inundated.
In January 2011, the council was too late to create an effective culvert on the road, and the waters reached 8.6 metres causing widespread property damage.
This time around, as the water rose, the council dug a wide culvert in the Charlton-St Arnaud Road on the Wednesday – the day before the river peaked.
The waters only rose to 7.55 metres and the town was spared the widespread damage of previous flood events in 2010 and 2011.
Buloke Shire director of works and technical services Anthony Judd said while they were yet to hold a complete debrief on this month’s floods, the measures appeared to have worked.
“A lot of anecdotal evidence from people in town was that this was the right thing to do,” he said.
“People upstream from Charlton were saying that it didn’t quite get to the height of 2010’s flood, so it is unclear how much of an impact the works had.”
The wide culvert directed water towards Back St Arnaud Road, which meant a second flood way needed to be created to direct the water into the Yeungroon Creek.
Flood modeling did not predict the water would affect the road as much as it did, which then led to properties and crops being affected by flood waters.
A major drain in the town also flooded several backyards near Charlton College.
VicRoads has released a tender to create a permanent flood way under Charlton-St Arnaud Road.
Mr Judd said more flood studies would guide future flood mitigation works.
“We will be looking at the options again,” he said.
“Every flood is different.”
Buloke Shire Council will continue to monitor water levels with heavy rain expected later this week.