STONE fruit growers battling to clear their properties of water ahead of approaching floodwaters say drainage systems are in “disrepair” and in need of urgent attention.
Some growers in the Woorinen and Lake Boga areas have been dealing with water collecting at the bases of their trees following over 70mm in rainfall last week.
Stone fruit trees do not handle wet feet and industry advice is to drain or pump water from the orchard within 48 hours.
Thousands of fruit trees died in the Woorinen region when they had prolonged exposure to water in 2011 after heavy rainfall and floods.
Ian McAllister said a major problem between Woorinen and Tresco was growers’ attempts to pump water off properties had hit obstacles in the current drainage system.
“The biggest problem is that culverts under the main road are all blocked,” Mr McAllister said.
“Because they haven’t been maintained and cleaned out, you’ve got a blockage at every culvert.”
Mr McAllister, who was one of several growers pumping water, said the water could end up on other people’s property due to the blockages.
He said the situation needed urgent fixing by Goulburn Murray Water, who he claimed had not addressed the problem for 40 years.
GMW emergency controller Peter Clydesdale said service work began earlier this month, but the drainage systems were not designed to deal with rainfall.
“The drainage systems in Tresco and Woorinen are subsurface drainage systems, which are designed to collect residue water from crop irrigation, but not for rainfall,” Mr Clydesdale said.
“Since Monday, October 10, we have had our construction workers from Swan Hill servicing drains in the Tresco and Woorinen regions.
“These staff will continue working to maintain our drainage systems.”
Mr McAllister said Goulburn Murray Water was now carrying out work, but it was “a little bit too late”.
“We’ve got the pressure of fungal diseases – that goes across everyone, whether you’ve got table grapes, stone fruit,” Mr McAllister said.
“Sitting around the corner, we’re going to have the looming floods … bigger than Ben Hur.
“We’ll have water coming in from Charlton and Quambatook through the marshes. We don’t get flooded out by the Murray, it’s the Loddon and the Avoca.”
