Part of a bridge which was crossing a river … somewhere … demolished, washed out to sea and returned on Ulverstone Beach.
EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …
• Will Hodgman, Premier
Ministerial Statement on Floods
Madam Speaker,
In the past six months, Tasmania has had more than its fair share of adversity, including drought, the devastating bushfires and floods in January and February this year, the Basslink outage, Pacific Oyster Mortality Syndrome, a sharp drop in farm-gate milk prices; and in the past week, the worst floods this State has seen overall in 40 years.
With record-breaking rain across much of the North and North-West of Tasmania, the State Emergency Service has reported that floodwaters of the North Esk River were the highest since 1929.
400mm of rain fell over the period 5 to 6 June into Lake Fisher in the Mersey catchment, 350mm fell at Great Lake east and 300mm fell at Lake Gairdner. In fact, Lake Gairdner, which spills into the Forth River, rose over 13 metres – from 9.5 metres below full, to over 3.5 metres above full in just 24 hours. And water in Great Lake rose by one metre, which is a massive increase for such a huge lake in such a short time.
To put this into context, this 24-hour rainfall is more than three times the average monthly rainfall for the area, as recorded at nearby Sheffield. The speed and severity of the floods caused by this record-breaking rainfall has tragically resulted in loss of life, and devastation to hundreds of families, businesses, farmers and local communities, and the social, economic and financial cost is extensive.
The Tasmanian Government – indeed the Tasmanian Parliament – joins with the Tasmanian community in extending our sincere condolences and thoughts to the families and friends of those tragically impacted by this disaster.
Mary Kathleen Alford was a much loved wife, mother and grandmother who died in tragic circumstances, despite the best efforts of her husband and rescue workers. Our thoughts are with Mary’s husband and family and with the rescue workers involved.
The search continues for Trevor Foster, who disappeared when tending to his livestock, and Peter Watson, who was swept away when his newspaper delivery van was inundated with rising flood waters.
It is difficult for any of us to imagine the trauma of these events for families and rescue workers involved.
But we stand beside those families, and with all Tasmanians impacted by these devastating floods – individuals, families, farmers, businesses, our rural and urban communities, and my clear message today is we will help you to recover and to rebuild.
Madam Speaker:
Last week I travelled to the North and North-West of the State and saw the devastation first-hand. The damage and power of the flood-waters was horrific.
While there, I was also privileged to meet our first responders, our State Emergency Services workers and volunteers, and our Police rescue teams and officers, who worked tirelessly – some of them for 36 hours straight or more – and without second thought placing themselves in danger to help others.
And of course, the SES and Police had already been working tirelessly in the search for missing Penguin woman, Angela Jeffrey.
The SES received over 400 requests for assistance, and more than 110 people were rescued in those first few days – pulled from water, rescued from rooftops, and saved from stranded vehicles.
While the assessment of the toll of these floods will continue for some time, initial estimates to date indicate that there are 263 properties assessed as impacted with 178 confirmed as having structural damage; this number is expected to rise. The communities of Forth, Ouse, Newstead, Mole Creek, and Longford among many other have been significantly impacted, it is however the community of Latrobe that has been most impacted.
Commercial properties have been impacted in the Derwent Valley, Central Coast, Launceston and Burnie, with 25 of them in Latrobe and 10 in Wivenhoe.
The floods have been particularly devastating for our farming communities, who on top of the drought earlier in the year, and for many, reduced milk prices, have now been hit with the heart-breaking loss of their livestock, the loss of crops, income loss through being unable to get cows to dairies, and significant infrastructure damage to outbuildings, fences and irrigators. Farming and agricultural properties are still being assessed.
Public infrastructure has also suffered significant damage, at this point we know of 35 bridges across the North and North-West impacted, including three railway bridges, as well as a wide variety of other infrastructure including health facilities, water and sewerage infrastructure and sporting facilities.
Seventeen of those bridges were in the North-West and have been destroyed or are considered unsafe for use, while at least 48 sections of road are in need of repair.
Roads in many local government areas are also severely impacted, and a number are still closed.
Repairs will take time and the Department of State Growth is working with providers to re-route traffic around bridge and road closures.
Rail infrastructure is significantly impacted. Some lines have been re-opened however links between Burnie and Devonport ports and the remainder of the network are severed. TasRail is re-routing freight and is working with customers to prioritise freight transport.
The Boyer and Brighton to Conara line re-opened last night and there will be an increase in heavy truck movements on the Midlands and Bass Highways as freight is trucked from Conara to the Northern ports.
The Department of State Growth continues to work with public transport providers to ensure they are using a safe route.
TasNetworks has worked tirelessly to restore outages but these efforts are still being hampered by weather conditions.
In our National Parks and Reserves and tourist sites, there has been significant damage and extensive wash-outs to roads, bridges, walking tracks, campgrounds and other visitor facilities, some with severe impacts with structures either destroyed or badly damaged. Current closures include Mole Creek Caves, Marakoopa Cave, Liffey Falls, and the Walls of Jerusalem.
The Port of Devonport was forced to close on 7 June with submerged debris and reopened on 10 June, with the Spirit of Tasmania vessels unable to sail during that period and commercial shipping operations affected. While the Port has reopened, and the TT-Line is now operating as usual, extra sailings have been scheduled to deal with the backlog of passengers and freight caused by the temporary closure, and some navigation restraints remain in place until further survey work and remediation can be finalised.
It will be some time before we are able to fully calculate the cost of these floods. Workers are still accessing affected areas to assess the impacts and institute recovery operations.
But on initial estimates, the economic, environmental and infrastructure costs will be significant.
We do know that the insured losses from the Dunalley bushfire were approximately $89 million and we anticipate it will be more for these floods.
The cost, of course, for those who have lost loved ones is incalculable.
As is always the case with such extreme natural events, there will be questions asked, and lessons to be learned.
It is too early to consider such matters now, but it is likely there will be at least one Coronial inquiry as a result, and we will consider what, if any, additional investigations are required.
Madam Speaker
The floods have resulted in such a significant loss to individuals, farmers, business and to rural and urban infrastructure, this has necessitated both an immediate and longer-term collaborative response from all tiers of Government.
The Government’s response has been immediate and holistic across the Government – from the Police and SES on the frontline to our Service Tasmania shopfronts; across Government departments such as DHHS, DPAC, State Growth and DPIPWE; and to the employees at State-owned businesses such as TasNetworks, TT-Line, and Tasrail who have all worked tirelessly to restore regular services.
Initial responses focused on ensuring public safety.
State Government Agencies took early and appropriate action in closing over a dozen schools, establishing evacuation centres, and providing information and regular updates through TasALERT.
Emergency assistance measures were put in place even before flood waters had receded, to provide a much-needed helping hand to affected families, business and farmers.
That included financial help of up to $750 for a family to help with clothing, food, transport, shelter and personal items. To date, 233 grants totalling $76,250 have been issued.
Arrangements were made for quick assessment through evacuation and recovery centres and Service Tasmania, and most of those eligible were able to get payment on the spot.
The Government also provided an immediate injection of $25,000 to the Rural Relief Fund to assist farmers, in addition to the $110,000 we provided in January to help farmers through the drought.
The Fund, administered by Rural Business Tasmania, is able to help farmers access up to $2500 in crisis relief for anything from household goods to fence repairs and fodder.
A Farm Assistance Hotline was established immediately to centralise offers of support for farm recovery efforts, including being the primary point of contact for Tasmanians able to assist farmers, including offers of fodder, equipment, animal assistance, machinery and welfare/higher ground.
DPIPWE has also had officers out on the ground early supporting farmers with stock management and undertaking ‘Rapid Impact Assessments’ where possible.
Public Health issued a number of public health warnings, including boil water alerts and information on the contamination of flood waters.
And Government Agencies, GBEs and State-owned enterprises were asked to give consideration to anyone having trouble making payments to the Government as a result of the floods, and to put in place appropriate arrangements for hardship.
Over the three days of this past long weekend, to support local communities, key Government services have remained open, including Child and Youth Services, Housing Tasmania, Service Tasmania and the Department of State Growth operating from the Recovery Centres located in Latrobe, and at Service Tasmania in Launceston.
There has been high demand for this additional service, with 605 visits to the Launceston Recovery Centre, and 497 visits to the Latrobe Recovery Centre over the three days.
In addition, the Tasmanian Emergency Information Service was activated last week and continued to operate across the long weekend from 9-5pm to field enquiries and to direct people needing assistance to the services open in Latrobe or Launceston with 134 calls. They will continue to do so through to Close of Business on Friday.
I want to thank all those staff over the weekend for their warmth and professionalism.
Community assistance has also been forthcoming, with the Salvation Army providing financial assistance through their Doorway centres, of up to $500 per adult and $125 per child available for those impacted. In addition the Red Cross and Tasmanian Council of Churches also worked from the recovery centres to provide support to those in need.
And banks and financial institutions kindly made arrangements to assist clients with cashing of emergency relief cheques.
Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements
Joint Australian and Tasmanian Government National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements were activated on the 9th June to continue to help ease the financial burden on communities.
That assistance is being offered in 18 local government areas from the far North-West to the Derwent Valley, through the Central Midlands, the East Coast, North and North-East.
This includes –
• recovery and restoration grants, including three grants of up to $8875 for temporary living expenses for those who are displaced, for essential household items which have been damaged or destroyed, and restoration and clean-up grants for vital home repairs;
• assistance to help affected councils and State agencies to undertake counter disaster operations, including the costs associated with cleaning up and restoring damaged public assets;
• concessional interest rate loans for small business, primary producers and not-for-profit organisations, including sporting and recreational clubs;
• freight subsidies for primary producers; and
• grants to not for profit organisations.
The cost of these arrangements will be jointly funded by the Australian and Tasmanian Governments.
These measures will help individuals, businesses, farmers and other community groups to get back on their feet quicker, and help those who have been hit the hardest.
We will continue to assess the recovery needs of all sectors involved, in terms of what further assistance may be required.
Emergency aid applications can be made at the recovery centres in Latrobe and Launceston and details can be found on the TasALERT website – www.alert.tas.gov.au
Madam Speaker:
The massive clean-up job is now underway, but the road to full recovery for affected communities will be long and difficult.
The Government will continue to ensure every effort is made to work with local communities in the rebuilding process.
The State Emergency Management Committee met on 6 June to ensure whole of government coordination of the response and recovery operations.
Yesterday, Cabinet agreed to establish a Flood Recovery Committee to coordinate and oversight the medium to long-term flood recovery.
The Committee will work across all State Government Agencies and with the Commonwealth and local government to help ensure that our communities get the assistance they need, as soon as possible.
The Flood Recovery Committee, which will be reporting directly to Cabinet, will be headed by Tasmania Police Commander Peter Edwards, who has extensive experience including the 2013 Dunalley bushfires.
Commander Edwards will work with Affected Area Committees established on the ground in affected areas to ensure a coordinated and full response to recovery.
Mr Michael Stevens, a former senior public servant and Coordinator for the Dunalley Bushfires, has also been appointed to provide expert advice.
A Recovery Taskforce has been established to support the work of the Flood Recovery Committee, including staff with expertise from DPAC, DHHS, DPFEM, DPIPWE and State Growth.
Those staff will formally commence work today.
Revised processes have also been instituted which enable agencies the flexibility to determine the most appropriate approach to government procurements arising from, or relating to, recovery efforts in respect of the floods.
The Insurance Council of Australia declared the Tasmanian floods a catastrophe on 7 June and under the declaration, the ICA has established a taskforce of senior insurance figures and activated its disaster hotline. This will assist all insured persons. The declaration also allows insurers up to 12 months to finalise claims, compared to the usual timeframe of four months.
I understand that Tasmanians want to assist this important recovery effort.
When it’s safe to do so, volunteers may also wish to be involved in the recovery and can do so by registered their interest with Emergency Volunteering CREW – which stands for Community Response to Extreme Weather – through Volunteering Tasmania. From there, they’ll be matched to an organisation involved with the disaster recovery.
In terms of donations, the Government encourages people to donate to Rural Business Tasmania for their Rural Relief Fund. The Lions Club of Latrobe has also established a Disaster Relief Account with the Commonwealth Bank and have collection tins at Hill Street Grocer, Latrobe Council and Terry White Pharmacies.
On the 10th June, the St Vincent de Paul Society, in partnership with MyState, has launched the 2016 Tasmanian Floods Appeal and is urging anyone wanting to help to make a financial contribution rather than providing donating goods. Donations can be made at any branch of MyState or by calling 131812. While the full impacts on livestock are currently being assessed, the Government is offering additional assistance to landholders through a Livestock Disposal Hotline through the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment, to facilitate the removal of carcasses and their appropriate disposal.
And to support the clean-up, councils in affected areas will likely be conducting additional waste collection services, with the City of Launceston offering residents of Hart Street in Newstead a free pick-up of flood damaged goods today, 14th June. City of Launceston staff will also be visiting properties and residents affected to assist them with ongoing recovery needs they may have.
The Tasmanian and Australian Governments will fund up to 75 percent of the cost of an additional waste collection by councils. This includes the engagement of contractors to assist with the clean-up task
Conclusion
Madam Speaker:
The stories that have emerged from the devastation have been both heart-breaking and heart-warming; from the bravery and courage of local police, to the humble heroes who rescued cattle.
We saw local councils and community members working side by side with local businesses to protect property, sand-bagging and lifting produce to higher shelves.
We saw local businesses shut their doors to make sandwiches for emergency workers, and several offer free accommodation to those evacuated from their homes.
We saw farmers helping farmers move stock and bring in supplies to those stranded by damaged roads and bridges.
It makes me proud to see the support we give each other in times of need, from a cup of tea to offering to take in washing, to helping injured and displaced wildlife, to cleaning up our beaches and river banks.
The strength and resilience of Tasmanians in times of hardship is already well known.
These terrible floods have again brought to the fore a wonderful spirit of community and cooperation.
The Government stands beside all Tasmanians in this effort.
Tasmania is a strong state. We have suffered before and we’ve rebuilt. And our communities will recover, and continue to prosper.
