West Australian Minister for Agriculture Mark Lewis travelled to the epicentre of the floods on Saturday, to inspect damage and recovery arrangements.
He joined State Member for Eyre Graham Jacobs and Federal Member for O’Connor Rick Wilson, who had toured the region on Friday.
A series of meetings were held with locals directly affected by the extensive storms and flooding including: Shire of Ravensthorpe representatives, agricultural property owners and operators, and the general public at a community meeting.
Shire of Ravensthorpe president Keith Dunlop and chief executive officer Ian Fitzgerald accompanied and briefed Mr Lewis throughout his visit
Mr Lewis’ visit, on behalf of WA Premier Colin Barnett, came after Mr Dunlop had heavily criticised the Mr Barnett for neglecting the flood stricken region.
Some areas within the shire copped more than 300mm in the heavy downpour that belted the region.
The damage bill has been estimated at more than $10 million.
The local government’s main concerns included reinstating the town’s connection to Albany for medical purposes, tourism implications barred access to the Fitzgerald River National Park would have and damage to infrastructure in town including: the tennis court, footpaths and local houses.
The top concern highlighted by shire representatives was the WA Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (WANDRRA) requirements to use contractors.
Unless the contractors were on the WALGA panel a six-week tender process would need to be undertaken.
Arguing that period was too long, the shire pushed that using its day labour workforce would be a better solution, logistically and financially.
Department of Agriculture and Food (DAFWA)’s rural business development unit project officer David Budd, who oversees the WANDRRA process on behalf of DAFWA, accompanied the minister.
Several on-farm meetings occurred at four locations on Saturday.
Among other grievances, access to information and assistance about the WANDRRA process, communication and power reliability, loss of topsoil and damage to farm infrastructure, long term impact and the timeline on the South Coast Highway’s planned upgrade were discussed at farmer consultation sessions.
During the visit DAFWA committed to place a WANDRRA project officer in Ravensthorpe to assist farmers with the application process, work to repair the State Barrier Fence, end hydrologist to Ravensthorpe to investigate situation and expedite the finalisation of incident assessment to determine whether Category C of the WANDRRA applies.
The Shire of Ravensthorpe committed to accommodate a request to the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to discuss insurers approach with Insurance Council of Australia, discuss – in conjunction with DAFWA – the possibility of placing a Natural Resource Manger in officer in Ravensthorpe to assist with issues, request Main Roads to consider funding fencing replacement adjacent to South Coast Highway and request Department of Water to engage with farmers and support the river clean-up and rebuilding of fences.
Top priority has been placed on opening local roads, fixing fences on-farm to contain livestock and assist those affect with claiming relief assistance.
The final clean up bill will take some time to calculate but as the water subsides authorities are finally beginning to understand the full extent of the damage.
