News

‘The whole town had a crack’: How Murchison banded together to fight floods

By Max Stainkamph

Oct 25, 2022

Flood recovery at Murchison: The remnants of Murchison's 30,000-sandbag effort along Stevensen St.

Stevenson St in Murchison the day before the flood was like nothing Glenn McPherson had seen in his time in town.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

For more than a decade, Mr McPherson has operated the Murchison Service Centre, with a view over the street to the Murchison gardens and up the embankment to the Goulburn, which acts as the town’s levee in times of flood.

On Thursday, October 13, the view up to the levee was obscured by hundreds of people, young and old, with shovels and sandbags in hand.

“The whole town had a crack, from the kids to the elderly,” Mr McPherson said.

“Someone up the road in his 70s was having a crack, and kids out the back were loading sandbags.

Looking back: Derek and Glenys Pearson at the Murchison Supa Valu Centre. Photo: Max Stainkamph

“These kids, they’re not just going to remember the water in the street, they’re going to remember stacking sandbags and everyone coming together.”

Mr McPherson reckoned 30,000 sandbags were filled over 36 hours, the majority of them finding their way into the levee along Stevenson St, waiting should the Goulburn break its banks in the centre of town.

“At one stage we were standing there sandbagging, a tipper trailer rocked up with sandbags and dumped it, and within two hours it was gone. Bagged and stacked,” he said.

Rescue mission: Some of Murchison's 30,000 sandbags along Stevensen St.

Standing next door at Murchison Supa Valu Centre as the river rose, Derek Pearson was worried despite the collective Herculean effort of the town of about 800 people, it might all be in vain.

“The river got about the top of the levee bank, but the water was coming out of the grass, the middle of the road was cracking and the footpath was crackling and it was bubbling up through the footpath,” he said.

“And I’m sitting there looking at it and I was expecting the footpath to open up a bit and all that pressure to push through.”

In the end, the Goulburn, which narrows and puts immense pressure on the left bank of the river at Murchison as it abruptly curls north towards Toolamba and Mooroopna, didn’t break into Stevenson St.

The river peaked at 12 metres on Friday, October 14. The levee held.

Mr Pearson said he couldn’t believe “the roar” of the water as it rushed past.

“You can imagine the force and the weight in it,” he said.

The pub, the bakery and more — they were okay.

Homes down past Willoughby St and near the cemetery, the Pearsons’ included, weren’t so lucky.

“The whole thing’s just a complete mess,” Mr Pearson, who’s lived in Murchison since 1981, said.

“In 1993 it might have lapped at the front of the house but this was up the lawn plus up the windowsill.”

He said the water was onto the windscreen of his pickup truck, totally inundating a tractor on the front lawn and reaching a metre high inside the home.

Helping out: Glenn McPherson organised deliveries of bread, ice and milk to the town during its 50-plus hours without power. Photo: Max Stainkamph

More than 35 properties in Murchison have been assessed as being seriously damaged, but more will be added to the list.

Mr Pearson expects to take four or five years to repair his mud-brick place, but homes near his all had “at least a foot of water through them”, which didn’t happen during the last major floods in 1993.

“The main thing is the shop’s still going, the shop’s fantastic for the community. We have the privilege of running the building, if we do it right they’ll look after that,” he said.

However, once the peak moved on to Mooroopna it took out the substation on the west bank of the river.

For two-and-a-half days, Murchsion was without power.

“As soon as it goes more than about 12 hours our two fridges, the perishables, the milk all goes off and we have to get thrown out,” Mr Pearson said.

Checking: Structural specialists use a drone to inspect the condition of the Murchison bridge after floods hit the town. More than 300 bridges, culverts and other pieces of infrastructure will undergo major structural assessments as part of the plan to get roads re-opened after large parts of regional Victoria were flooded.

That’s where Mr McPherson — whose house in Tatura was safe — and Rushworth resident Paul Archer stepped in.

"It was pretty hard core,“ Mr McPherson said of the days after the peak.

“There was a lot going on and a lot had to happen. One of my workers had a metre (of water) go through his house. Derek has a metre go through.

So those who could leapt into action. Mr McPherson and Mr Archer helped organise 250 loaves of bread from the Rushworth Bakery, using flour from the bakery in Murchison which couldn’t operate without power.

On Thursday, standing in his store, just five loaves were left. The pair also organised milk and ice for families desperately trying to keep fridges and freezers cold.

He said it was the least he could do after the town pulled together in the way he’d never seen.

“It’s pulled the town together,” Mr McPherson said.

“I’ve been working here 11 years. The amount of people have all come back together like glue. It’s one team.”