THE initial gathering in a string of community forums to re-visit the Lake Buffalo expansion has been postponed due to the ongoing bushfire crisis.
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The first of seven community forums to be held in the Murray Valley electorate was set down for Bright on January 15, but the town is presently under "watch and act" advice with multiple bushfires in the Abbeyard, Mt Buffalo and Wongungara areas still to be brought under control.
Following a request to evacuate last Friday, residents have been allowed to return to their properties.
Murray Valley MP Tim McCurdy said said the information sessions would detail the Coalition's call to refer the expansion of Lake Buffalo to the National Water Grid Authority.
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He said a replacement session for Bright would be announced in coming days and hoped the Myrtleford session set down for January 23 at the town's RSL Club would still go ahead.
Mr McCurdy said he was aware of only house, in the Buffalo River area, being lost in his electorate to date.
"We will just wait and see how long this lingers for," he said.
"But our plan is to keep the pressure on the Premier (Daniel Andrews) to say 'look, we are not asking for money, we are not asking for anything less, but referring it off to the Commonwealth to have a look at it'.
"If it doesn't stack up I will be the first to say 'it doesn't stack up and let's move on'.
"But the Commonwealth has got $100 million to look at projects like this and now is as good a time as any to use someone else's money."
The Victorian Labor government has resisted all attempts to revisit the Big Buffalo plan.
"I'm asking the Andrews Labor Government to reverse its panicked and unsupported 'no dams' policy and refer the expansion of Lake Buffalo to the federal government for investigation," he said.
"Big Buffalo has been on the cards for a long time in North-East Victoria.
We believe there is an opportunity, while the federal government is looking for big, nation-shaping projects, to see whether it can stack up."
Lake Buffalo has reached 100 per cent capacity every year since 2003.
Big Buffalo would investigate increasing the existing dam capacity of 23,900 megalitres and connect it to Lake Nillahcootie via a pipeline.
The forums will be held at Cobram (January 20), Yarrawonga (January 21), Wangaratta (January 22), Moyhu (January 27) and Whitfield (January 28).
Meanwhile, Mr McCurdy paid tribute to CFA volunteers, community organisations, agencies and emergency services personnel as the bushfires continue to burn.
"Our CFA volunteers have been absolutely outstanding and their efforts are making a huge difference to the fire fight," he said.
