By Tyler Wright
After flooding continues to leave houses and properties vulnerable to damage, Kallista residents and businesses are calling for action.
Denise Young’s garage was flooded in January this year, alongside her next-door neighbour’s bungalow.
Debris from the unsealed Gleghorn Road, off Monbulk Road and adjacent to Denise’s property, blocked the culvert which would normally see the water flow through her land and into the neighbouring creek.
“I just renovated downstairs under the house and that was full of mud and water, [and] new floors only about [a] week before. So, fortunately, all my neighbours rallied and they brought hay bales to stop the water coming in more,” Denise said.
Flooding wasn’t something Denise knew about when she purchased her home four years ago; but it’s an issue that has plagued the area for more than four decades, according to neighbour Karen Kestigian.
“Over the last 40 years we’ve been flooded every two to three years, and the rainfall over the last five [to] six years has gotten much, much worse than what it was before,” Karen said.
“This year – in January, and in March – we were flooded twice. That also happened when we had the big storms [in 2021].
When I say flooding, it’ll come up to your knee.”
Karen has lived on Monbulk road since 1989 and said with one drain along the roughly 700-metre-long road between the Kallista Team Rooms and the entrance to Perrins Creek Road, debris clogs up the culverts and pipes that run along the main strip.
“Up on the escarpment, and on [the] corner (of Gleghorn road and Monbulk Road), there are two big pipes, apart from the water containment box.
“Just recently… ponds were forming on the corner of Gleghorn Road and Monbulk Road, when [water] is in full blast, it’s [blasting] across the road like a cannon…
“I went to VicRoads, I went to [Yarra Ranges Council] and pleaded with them to please clean out the pipes. Nothing happened. They only put up two signs; ‘water across the road,’ and that was it.”
The lack of action by government bodies VicRoads and Yarra Ranges Council is something Sam Boratav, owner of Kallista Tea Rooms, finds frustrating as he tries to protect his business from water damage.
“After my first or second [flooding] experience, I realised this is a big risk and it’s not getting any better, so I started to think ‘what can I do?, so I spent a few dollars and got sandbags’ Sam said.
“First I was just putting [them] in front of the doorway [at] about 10 centimetres high; water got pretty much to that level a couple of times, but then what I realized is getting water in front of the tearooms is also making a big mess; bringing all the mud, dirt [and] pebbles.
I started cleaning for hours, days after that.”
Sam then made the decision to place the sandbags on the pathway, to divert the water through the steps and to the back of the tearooms.
But after leaving sandbags on the footpath overnight the Sunday after the June 2021 storm event, Sam received a call from Yarra Ranges Council requesting he remove the sandbags for the safety of pedestrians.
“I told them why the sandbags [were] there, and it’s not my interest to put the sandbags [there], but I’m trying to do their job to basically stop the water coming in; protecting the area as well as the building,” Sam said.
“They said, ‘okay, well, do you want to put in a complaint about that issue? and I said, yes, let’s do that,’ so I formally put in a complaint about the floods at that time.”
Over a year later, Sam followed up with the case number of this complaint and was told since the sandbags were removed, the case was closed.”
The entrance to the Kallista Team Rooms’ gravel carpark has also eroded due to the impact of crushed rock, causing a gap at the entrance.
“The result of that was all the customer cars entering the car park started hitting the bottom of their cars and we started having some negative feedback about that on Facebook, Google and so on,” Sam said.
Sam forked out $3,000 to repair the carpark as a temporary solution.
“The main act we are doing is just getting the locals all together and trying to do real action, especially by VicRoads.
Karen is also worried the erosion along Monbulk Road, caused by regular floods, will also lead to safety issues for visitors and locals alike.
“There’s erosion happening all around, the culverts are being eroded; we should not live like this, not when you consider we’re now part of Melbourne, we’re 45 minutes from Melbourne. This is a tourist destination,” she said.
Karen, Sam and Denise are pushing for integrated overall water management and infrastructure installation along Monbulk Road, and regular maintenance of the busy arterial.
Yarra Ranges Council’s Director of Environment and Infrastructure, Mark Varmalis, said the council is “very aware” of drainage issues for community members in Kallista, particularly around Gelghorn Road and Monbulk Road.
“We’ve met with impacted community members in late June and have been working to find solutions to improve drainage management and maintenance for the land we manage,” Mark said.
“We’ve included Gleghorn Road in our Roads for the Community Program, to be sealed with associated underground drainage improvements. We expect this project to be finished in the 2022-23 financial year. Emberson Street is also included in our program for 2025-26.”
Mark said there have been delays in the design of Gleghorn Road due to the need to align with Yarra Valley Water’s proposed sewer works with year, so the project has been divided into two sections.
“[With] stage one involving the western drainage along Gleghorn Road, which will be done as soon as possible to respond to local flooding,” Mark said.
“Stage two will focus on sealing the road surface and the drainage on the eastern end of the road.
We’re expecting stage one to manage a significant amount of community concerns around local flooding, and will work to ensure the new drainage helps alleviate the wider issues, by reducing flow to Monbulk Road.”
Stage one is expected to be completed in late 2022, with stage two finishing by mid-2023.
Mark said the council is working with “agency and state government counterparts” to help with Monbulk Road’s drainage issues, which is a “state-managed arterial road by the Department of Transport”.
A spokesperson from the Department of Transport (DoT) said it will continue to work with the Shire of Yarra Ranges to manage the road drainage around roads in Kallista.
“When Gleghorn Road is sealed by the Shire, a more permanent drainage solution can be identified and delivered,” the spokesperson said.
DoT said drain lining work was completed in early 2021 by DoT to help with the situation, and another round of drain cleaning works on Monbulk Road was completed in March 2022.
DoT said it carries out regular inspections of Monbulk Road and undertakes drain cleaning works as part of its maintenance program and will continue to inspect and clean the drainage system around Kallista to ensure the drainage system remains functional.
In the meantime, DoT said it will continue to maintain Monbulk Road and will work with the Yarra Ranges Shire to reassess the situation once Gleghorn Road has been sealed.
In the meantime, residents will remain unsure of when their property will next be damaged by a flooding event.
“You get scared because when it starts to rain, you think you’re going to come home to disaster…this isn’t supposed to happen,” Denise said.
Yarra Ranges Council said community members can find out more about Gleghorn Road works at shaping.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/gleghornroad
