Cut off: Thompsons Beach was a casualty of the October 2022 floods.
Photo by
Murray Silby
It’s safe to say October 2022 wasn’t the region’s best time.
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From Echuca in the north to Seymour in the south, Victorians faced nature’s onslaught, as much of the state flooded.
Straddling the mighty Murray River, Cobram and Barooga were relatively lucky.
Arguably, the biggest casualty of the area was Thompsons Beach and the Beach Café, which found itself flooded and cut off.
Barooga’s Bullanginya Lagoon footbridge was also submerged, and the Cobram Agricultural Show was cancelled due to attendees and participants being unable to navigate the flooded region safely.
On the roads, the causeway between Cobram and Barooga was reduced to one lane for a day, and flooding also occurred at Tocumwal Bends.
Close call: While the footbridge at Bullanginya Lagoon flooded, most of Cobram avoided the fate of many towns across northern Victoria.
Photo by
Gabriel Garcia
Many of the beaches and park areas were closed for months after the flooding as the council worked to make the areas safe again.
Despite these inconveniences, residents of Cobram, Barooga and Tocumwal were the lucky ones.
Further south, much of Shepparton was inundated with water, displacing or trapping thousands.
Shepparton residents affected included those who worked in Cobram, including myself.
East of Cobram, the tourist town of Echuca was divided by an improvised levee and flooded, and in Seymour, my colleague was just one of many to lose their home to the flooding.
One year on, the after-effects of the flooding, including emotional trauma, financial distress and damaged infrastructure, still linger.
The October 2022 floods were supposed to be a one-in-100-year event.
Hopefully that is true.
And should flooding occur again, we can only hope the Cobram area is spared the worst.
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