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A Bendigo councillor says flooding is the “biggest single issue” facing the city over the next decade as a development boom increases run-off into its major waterway.
Councillor Peter Cox said at this week’s City of Greater Bendigo meeting that future councils would have to radically rethink their approach to managing the Bendigo Creek to better cope with periods of intense rainfall.
“We [have to] start to think – as councils have not in the past thought – about where water is going to flow if we’re going to continually build and build within eight or 10 metres [of the creek],” Cr Cox said.
The Whipstick Ward councillor and most-recent former mayor said restoring the creek to a more natural state would help it cope with flooding events.
“Over the last 150 years water had naturally flowed over the creek banks and down the valley [but] successive councils over many, many years have built as close as eight metres to the creek and no longer can the water flow over the land and out to the north,” he said.
“We talk in terms of building swimming pools for $31 million in our capital budget, but maybe bringing back the Bendigo Creek to a natural waterway with vegetation and billabongs and the sort of lifestyle that goes with living in Benidgo has to be a major consideration.”
The idea is not entirely novel – the city’s draft Environment Strategy for 2016-2036 lists restoring the creek as one of three flagship projects.
Among the five year outcomes which the strategy would adopt is a plan to develop a regional Bendigo Creek Management and Action Plan, which would include protection from encroaching urban development at Epsom and Huntly.
Cr Cox was speaking as councils voted to refer 42 outstanding submission to a flood overlay be referred to an independent panel.
The overlay would affect more than 5500 Bendigo properties and Cr Cox said he believed many did not raise objections as they did not fully understand its technicalities. But he called on those affected to engage with the process.
“It’s going to have two major effects on individual’s properties,” he said.
“The first is where and if development is going to take place into the future and then, secondly, is the cost of insurance to our properties.”
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