Stormwater management is an integral part of sustaining our natural environment, economy, health, wellbeing and lifestyle. Indeed, water and flooding are inherent aspects of our natural environment and integral to our municipality's landscape whether we like it or not.

We recognise that floods to people’s properties causes stress and anxiety and that there is a burden of increased property maintenance and/or insurance costs for a section of our community.

While all levels of government endeavour to enhance conditions during rainfall events, this cannot be totally controlled and not every issue has an engineering solution. Changes to weather patterns has also had an impact on the capacity of some of our stormwater drains along with historical development.

The Stormwater Management Plan was adopted by Council on Tuesday 10 September 2024. You can refer to our website for ongoing information.

In line with recommendations regarding the ongoing progress of this plan, Council is committed to the following actions:

• Council will partner with Melbourne Water to undertake flood mapping for all the identified catchments (2024- 2026).
• Establish a Community Reference Panel to provide community input on stormwater projects and studies under the Stormwater Management Plan (SWMP26).
• Update catchment prioritisation following completion of municipal wide flood modelling through active participation with the Community Reference Panel.

Yarra Ranges Council is inviting expressions of interest (EOI) from community members to join a Stormwater Community Reference Panel (SCRP) to help shape the region’s approach to stormwater management.

The Panel will serve as a direct link between Yarra Ranges Council and the community, with an expression of interest open to anyone who has who has stormwater and flood management knowledge or lived experience.

The Panel is due to meet on Thursday afternoons every four months (3 meetings per year). Community members are involved in a voluntary capacity and must abide by the terms of reference.

Community members wishing to apply for a position on the Panel will need to complete their application with the closing date being midnight on Friday 21 December 2024- SCRP EOI form. A hardcopy (Word) form is available to download from the 'Document LIbrary'; this can be returned via post or dropped in at one of our Community Links.

We have heard from some of you about your experiences of flooding and drainage issues across our municipality - and now we want to tell others.

We face many challenges related to stormwater and flooding across the Yarra Ranges and we need to advocate to other levels of government to find additional funding to help with our ageing infrastructure, existing flood risk, climate change considerations and the quality of our rivers, creeks and waterways.

The best way we can do this is with your powerful stories and personal lived experiences.

If you would like to contribute to Council's Stormwater Advocacy booklet please complete the form below. Please note, a first name and suburb will be needed for this document and photos can be submitted as well. This document will be made available through Council's communication channels and to other levels of government, by completing this form you are agreeing that Council can use your information for those purposes.