Indigo Shire and other councils face dilemma of infrastructure that can't handle significant rain

Albury and Greater Hume councils became eligible for disaster funding on Friday after initiating applications in the wake of a January 14 event.

Indigo Shire is also in the process of lodging a disaster declaration with Emergency Management Victoria after homes were flooded during the last weekend of January.

Chief executive Trevor Ierino said there was no denying the sheer volume of rain exceeded the capacity of infrastructure.

"With climate change and variable weather patterns, and events of this nature happening more frequently, councils across Australia are facing the same dilemma (of) how to manage ageing infrastructure that was never designed for these events," he said.

"Much of our infrastructure is underground and very expensive to change, and designed in an era where the known rainfall events were likely to be very different.

"Our immediate priority is cleaning up, ensuring roads are safe and accessible and assisting affected residents in any way that we can ... we understand what a stressful and upsetting time this has been."

Mr Ierino said most of the infrastructure damage was done to roads in the Rutherglen area, but the storms were widespread.

"It is still early days in terms of assessing damage, but we expect the repair costs will be many hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said.

Indigo mayor Bernard Gaffney and deputy mayor Peter Croucher visited affected areas last week.

They met with about 15 Rutherglen residents who believe investigations are needed to determine options for flood mitigation infrastructure around the Lake King and golf club precinct.

Dave Edwards, chair of a committee that manages the area, said a significant amount of water had come down the hill, going through some homes on Murray Street.

"I'm not an engineer, but that to me (uphill) is where you would start (investigations)," he said.

"This park is about 80 hectares but you double that when you take in the high school and up further.

"We've had virtually half our yearly rainfall in January.

"Personally, I think we need a survey and a lot of money, and hope it doesn't happen again."

Some residents including Barry Miller believe the reconfiguration of Lake King added to the impacts in the weather event, while acknowledging the difficulty of confirming this.

"I'm 67 and have been here all my life - I was born and raised 50 metres in that direction (from the lake)," he said.

"I know climate change has a got a fair bit to do with it, but I'm a strong believer if that bank was still there, it wouldn't have been as extreme as what it is.

"We had 700 millimetres on the side fence - it was just like a river on both sides of our house."

Lake King was reconfigured because a 2013 hydrology study and consequence assessment determined that the dam wall, built in the 1800s, was leaking and unsafe.

Two proposals were put forward: that it be decommissioned and converted into a wetland or receive remedial works.

The former option was chosen as remediating and strengthening the dam wall would have required the relocation of Rutherglen bowling club and cost $10 million dollars.

The conversion of the Lake was expected to reduce the potential for the lake to flood Murray Street.

Flood impacts were widespread across Rutherglen; Scotch Street residents have raised a lack of curb and guttering, while a culvert with noticeable tree growth in Hunter Street was reported to council.

Asked whether council would be considering flood mitigation investigations in Rutherglen, Mr Ierino said in a statement "a number of flood studies were undertaken in Rutherglen over the years".

"The weekend storm event created a stormwater flow that exceeded the capacity of local infrastructure," he said.

"Most of the catchments in and around Rutherglen have already been investigated."

Benambra MP Bill Tilley has written to Emergency Services Minister Jaclyn Symes asking her to seek disaster relief funding for Rutherglen and Chiltern.

"Both towns and their outlying districts bore the brunt of a super cell," he said.

"My office has spoken with homeowners, farmers, moteliers, retailers and Indigo Council who all claim the downpour was unprecedented.

"Many of those affected have found their insurance policies do not include inundation."

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The funding is a joint Commonwealth and state arrangement and requires the Victorian government to declare the LGA disaster-affected.

Wahgunyah resident and Liberal candidate for Indi Ross Lyman indicated the federal government's willingness to provide funding.

"I've been speaking to Morrison government Ministers this week and know the Morrison Government stands ready to provide support to our community as soon as the Victorian Government triggers the disaster arrangements," he said.