Ferntree Gully Belgrave
Groups assisting mums in their recovery
BOOK WEEK: Authors reveal their favourite reads
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Tuesday, 23 August, 2022
Mail Primary School enters major dance comp PAGE 12
A Star News Group Publication
PROPERTY GUIDE Phone: 5957 3700 Trades and Classifieds: 1300 666 808
12496493-NG22-21
Flooding disaster By Tyler Wright
Sam Boratav, owner of the Kallista Tea Rooms, and Karen Kestigian, Kallista resident, are both calling on government bodies to install an integrated water management system on Monbulk Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS Road. 293328 “Up on the escarpment, and on [the] corner (of Gleghorn road and Monbulk Road) there are two big pipes, apart from the water containment box. “Just recently... ponds were forming on the corner of Gleghorn Road and Monbulk Road, when [water] is in full blast, it’s [blasting] across the road like a cannon… “I went to VicRoads, I went to [Yarra Ranges Council] and pleaded with them to please clean out the pipes. Nothing happened. They only put up two signs; ‘water across the road,’ and that was it.” The lack of action by government bodies VicRoads and Yarra Ranges Council is something Sam Boratav, owner of Kallista Tea Rooms,
finds frustrating as he tries to protect his business from water damage. “After my first or second [flooding] experience, I realised this is a big risk and it’s not getting any better, so I started to think ‘what can I do?, so I spent a few dollars and got sandbags’ Sam said. “First I was just putting [them] in front of the doorway [at] about 10 centimetres high; water got pretty much to that level a couple of times, but then what I realized is getting water in front of the tearooms is also making a big mess; bringing all the the mud, dirt [and] pebbles. I started cleaning for hours, days after that.”
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Kallista residents and businesses are calling for action after flooding continues to leave houses and properties vulnerable to damage. Denise Young’s garage was flooded in January this year, alongside her next door neighbour’s bungalow. Debris from the unsealed Gleghorn Road, off Monbulk Road and adjacent to Denise’s property, blocked the culvert which would normally see the water flow through her land and into the neighbouring creek. “I just renovated downstairs under the house and that was full of mud and water, [and] new floors only about [a] week before. So fortunately, all my neighbors rallied and they brought hay bales to stop the water coming in more,” Denise said. Flooding wasn’t something Denise knew about when she purchased her home four years ago; but it’s an issue that has plagued the area for more than four decades, according to neighbour Karen Kestigian. “Over the last 40 years we’ve been flooded every two to three years, and the rainfall over the last five [to] six years has gotten much, much worse than what it was before,” Karen said. “This year - in January, and in March - we were flooded twice. That also happened when we had the big storms [in 2021]. When I say flooding, it’ll come up to your knee.” Karen has lived on Monbulk road since 1989 and said with one drain along the roughly 700 metre long road between the Kallista Team Rooms and the entrance to Perrins Creek Road, debris clogs up the culverts and pipes that run along the main strip.
Sam then made the decision to place the sandbags on the pathway, to divert the water through the steps and to the back of the tearooms. But after leaving sandbags on the footpath overnight the Sunday after the June 2021 storm event, Sam received a call from Yarra Ranges Council requesting he remove the sandbags for the safety of pedestrians. “I told them why the sandbags [were] there, and it’s not my interest to put the sand bags [there], but I’m trying to do their job to basically stop the water coming in; protecting the area as well as the building,” Sam said. “They said, ‘okay, well, do you want to put in a complaint about that issue? and I said, yes, let’s do that,’ so I formally put in a complaint about the floods at that time.” Over a year later, Sam followed up with the case number of this complaint and was told since the sandbags were removed, the case was closed.” The entrance to the Kallista Team Rooms’ gravel carpark has also eroded due to the impact of crushed rock, causing a gap at the entrance. “The result of that was all the customer cars entering the car park started hitting the bottom of their cars and we started having some negative feedback about that on Facebook, Google and so on,” Sam said. Sam forked out $3,000 to repair the carpark as a temporary solution. “The the main act we are doing is just getting the locals all together and trying to do real action, especially by VicRoads. Karen is also worried the erosion along Monbulk Road, caused by regular floods, will also lead to safety issues for visitors and locals alike. Continued on page 2