Loch Garry is a regulating structure about 20km north of Shepparton, off the Shepparton-Barmah Rd.
It is designed to provide low to medium flood level protection and G-MW is legally obligated to pull bars at Loch Garry 24 hours after the river height exceeds 10.36m on the Goulburn River’s Shepparton gauge.
On Wednesday, November 2, the Goulburn River at Shepparton was at 10.38m at noon and rising and was expected to reach the moderate flood level (10.70m) on November 3.
The bars were last removed on October 16, however, because of the size of the flood, staff were unable to safely remove them all.
G-MW emergency controller Shayne Lowe said the bars were re-instated on October 31.
He did not expect access problems this time.
‘’Staff are highly unlikely to experience any difficulties accessing the loch structure based on forecast water levels,’’ he said.
Farmers who spoke on condition of anonymity to Shepparton News’ sister paper Country News last week, raised concerns about how the structure was operated during floods.
They questioned why the structure had to be manually operated when many of the water control structures around the district were operated remotely and were annoyed there was some delay between the problems with operating Loch Garry and the public announcement of what had happened.
On October 21, G-MW said it was reviewing operations of the infrastructure.
“It is standard protocol for G-MW to review operating procedures after major flood events like the one that was recently experienced,” Mr Lowe said.
“G-MW will consult with customers to undertake a review of the Loch Garry operating procedures, including the notification process and adaptability of the rules to factor in unprecedented flooding.”
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