AGEING infrastructure and clogged drains around Clunes are a recipe for disaster, says a resident who has called for more to been done to prevent flooding which occurred last week.
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An inundation of 78.8mm - just over three inches in a 24-hour period from Thursday night - led to many streets in the town becoming waterlogged, with some properties coming dangerously close to being flooded.
Hepburn Shire workers were out attempting to fix some of the issues on Friday, but another downpour on Friday night saw water levels rise again.
IN OTHER NEWS
Clunes resident Joseph Perse said the issue of drains clogging had been going on for as long as he can remember. And while he acknowledges it was an unusual event, he doesn't see that as an excuse.
"We've been having floods and fires for centuries, but what it is, is infrastructure ages and it needs to be maintained," he said.
"It's an issue all across Clunes. I had a cafe-restaurant there in Fraser Street and we had times where overflowing because sewerage was blocked. It seems what work is done is of poor quality across the district.
"We've got more and more houses in the area which is only going to add more to the demand of the old infrastructure, something needs to be done."
The SES said it received 118 calls for assistance over the 48 hours from 10am on Thursday to 10am on Saturday in the mid-west region. In the 24 hours from 10am on Friday there were 64 call outs across the district which takes in areas from Bacchus Marsh right through the Hepburn Shire and Ballarat.
Of those calls, 29 were for floods, 16 for building damage, and 16 for fallen trees. In Clunes, there was just two calls for assistance.
Across the state, there was, 583 requests for assistance including 219 for building damage, 195 for flood, 135 for fallen trees.
The Courier's attempts to contact Cameron Ward councillor Tessa Halliday over the weekend were unsuccessful.
TRIPLE THE RAINFALL IN JANUARY
JUST when we thought Ballarat had seen an end to the rainy January, another fast moving storm swept through the city on Friday night, dumping another 20mm on already sodden ground.
It meant that the city ended up recording triple its annual amount of rainfall for the month as long term predictions of a La Nina event, bringing widespread summer rain, came to fruition.
Normally Ballarat can expect just under 40mm of rain in January, the driest month of the year, but this year, the city saw 117mm.
While it was still a long way short of the record of 203mm we received in 2011, it is the second successive year that the first month saw well above the annual rainfall. Last year, while bushfires raged across most of the state, Ballarat saw 70mm fall.
The high amounts of cloud cover and lack of sunshine meant that average temperatures were just on a degree cooler than normal, while the cloudy conditions meant slightly warmer nights.
Ballarat averaged 24.6 degrees for the month, one degree short of the average, with overnight lows slightly warmer than normal, but still on the whole a very comfortable 11.5 degrees.
Only once did the night stay above 20 degrees, a 21.5 degree evening on January 25. January 25 also proved to be the hottest day with a top in the city of 36.5 degrees, but a long way short of the record 42 degrees. On just eight occasions did the city exceed 30 degrees for the month coming in a four out of five day stretch from January 9-13 and a similar stretch of four days between January 21-25.
Despite the nearly 60mm downpour at the end of the month spread over two days, the wettest 24-hour period actually came all the way back on January 3 when 40.8mm fell.
However, most would probably have not noticed that, as the majority of the rainfall fell late in the evening and was pretty much gone by the morning.
And it looks like another summer tradition might go by the wayside in 2021 with the first full week of school, - traditionally the hottest time of the year - set to be pleasant, rather than hot.
We will get to 24 on Monday, before a cool southerly hits on Tuesday with a top of just 18, but from there expect tops of 25, 27 and 25. Rainfall will be at a minimum to start the week, but another storm bringing up to 20-40mm could fall in the region on Friday adding to the already soaked ground and causing more potential flooding issues.
The large amount of rain also means that Ballarat's water supply is high for this time of year. As of last week, the total water supply was at 88 per cent, however that will be expected to climb when the next survey is released early in the week.
