Sobering: State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell and Victorian Opposition leader John Pesutto attend a meeting in Rochester yesterday.
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Community confidence has become the long-term collateral damage in Rochester’s frightening new reality, as the flood-ravaged community struggles to recover from 2022 and now January 2024.
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Victorian Opposition leader John Pesutto and Nationals leader Peter Walsh arrived in Rochester yesterday to meet the people trying to manage the ongoing trauma in the local population.
With hundreds of houses still waiting for repair and people still stranded in caravans or living elsewhere, the biggest challenge remains the mental health and wellbeing of the people of Rochester.
With Rochester Elmore District Health Service still largely shut down, its chief executive Karen Laing told the meeting it was relying on a temporary urgent care service through the rooms of a local GP.
Resilient: State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh, Rochester resident Leigh Wilson and Opposition leader John Pesutto visited Rochester to discuss the challenges residents still face 16 months on from the devastating floods of October 2022.
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She said Rochester Community House was the frontline for many people seeking psychiatric help.
RCH general manager Amanda Logie told the meeting, chaired by Campaspe Shire Mayor Rob Amos, that being able to deliver a consistent mental health support strategy was being severely impacted by lack of funding.
“We have been able to self-fund — through grants and support from groups such as the Kyabram Club — a mental health support worker,” Ms Logie said.
“And yes, government funding has provided services in places such as Bendigo and Echuca, but we have to find a better way to get them to the people who need them.”
Rochester recovery committee spokesman Leigh Wilson agreed there was access, but “it’s just not where we need it”.
We’re listening: State Member for Northern Victoria Wendy Lovell, Opposition leader John Pesutto, Campaspe Shire Mayor Rob Amos, Campaspe Shire councillor Tony Marwood and Campaspe Shire chief executive officer Pauline Gordon take notes during the discussion.
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Mr Wilson said his town and his community remained in limbo.
It is being severely damaged by “too many people falling through the cracks”, with cases of depression and anxiety escalating to clinical and there not being a safety net there to catch them.
“You can look around — the flooding did not discriminate between the young and the old, the wealthy and the average. This flood hit everyone,” Mr Wilson said.
“It has been 15 months and we still have people living in sheds, some with things in storage containers (that were) lost in January’s floods. The pain is remorseless and Rochester feels lost in a bureaucratic nightmare where nothing is happening fast enough.
“There is a lot of help scattered around, but there is no plan. I have spoken to people in the Health Department and one of the problems is that no-one seems to want to own responsibility for an overall plan for fear of being the ones in charge if something goes wrong.”
Mr Walsh, the State Member for Murray Plains, said speed and commitment from the Victorian Government were critical if Rochester was to have any chance of returning to its life pre-2022.
He said it was not just the ongoing problems in the town, it was the spectre of Lake Eppalock, which haunted virtually everyone in the city every time there was heavy rain.
“The report into the future mitigation of the flow from Eppalock is still months away, and while we know there is a lot of data to be pulled together when you are living in cobbled accommodation when you can’t go home, months seem like years, and you can understand the despair that causes,” Mr Walsh said.
“We also need to fast-track the flood mitigation plan for REDHS so the hospital and its ancillary services, such as aged care, are secure and can continue to function in the event of another flood.”
Mr Pesutto called on the state government to put its hand in its pocket and secure the long-term funding needed for the support services still lacking in Rochester.
He said specialists, such as mental health workers or even those working with people to get them back into town, needed to know their positions were secure.
“These people build relationships, develop rapport and earn trust — and then the fund is gone, and so are they,” Mr Pesutto said.
“That sets people back more than you can know, but if you have a job in Rochester that is reliant on funding, and you know it runs out in three months, you are already out there in the job market worrying about your future at the same time.
“That’s not good enough for those people, and it’s certainly nowhere near good enough for Rochester.”
