Macedon Ranges residents have heard flood recovery is expected to be a long process with widespread damage from the October flood events.
The mayor, Cr Jennifer Anderson, said Darraweit Guim was one the hardest hit areas in the shire and efforts were continuing shire-wide to support flood-impacted residents.
“Some people in our community may not be aware of how extensive the storm damage has been to council infrastructure, businesses and private residences,” she said at council’s Wednesday meeting.
“The council is still working hard. In Darraweit Guim, we’ve been assisting with portable toilets, portable showers and bin skips for the clean up.
“Unfortunately when these events occur, that area is on septic so there is a lot of mud and sludge and it is going to take quite a long time to recover.”
Darraweit Guim Primary School and Darraweit Guim Cidery were just two of those heavily impacted. Residents have also reported significant damage to homes.
“We’ve been working really well with the state and federal governments, the SES, the various support emergency service agencies to try and get information out to those affected residents as soon as possible,” Cr Anderson said.
“We do know that some of the roads that have re-opened are not up to the standard they were perhaps at before but they are safe to travel on.
“We are still expecting more rain and the message is always, if there is water over the road please do not cross the road because you do not know the depth of that water.”
Cr Anderson asked community members to be patient and kind to council staff as recovery efforts continued.
“Everyone is stepping up and doing extra duties at the moment to assist those affected, to assess our infrastructure and to try and get everything back in good working order as much as possible but it does take time,” she said.
“We sense your frustration, we know it’s hard and you want to get on with what you normally do every week with your community activities but please be patient and continue to talk to our council staff.”
