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www.wangarattachronicle.com.au
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
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Transmoto raises thousands for worthy cause Page 3
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MAKING A SPLASH STUDENTS in years three to six at Wangaratta Primary School have been taking part in swimming lessons, learning fundamental swimming and lifesaving skills, as well as water safety, just in time for summer. From left, Poppy Jones, Gemma Flanagan, Sophie Boyle and (front) Ally Puls, with (back) Charlee Wahlert, Maddi Puls, (back) Xavier VanSchaik, Olive Brown, Nash Farrugia, (back) Coco Brown and (front) Stella Graham, are among those enjoying the opportunity. With the end of term almost in sight, see more news from our schools and kinders on page 8. PHOTO: Zoe Henschke
Aggregate winners show their class
Sport
Spillway stoush Complex C pl river i spillway pill y h has llandholders dh ld llosing i gp patience, ti , with ith th their i p properties p ti under d water t A SPILLWAY built to prevent breakouts in a Markwood catchment of the Ovens River has landholders losing patience, experiencing unprecedented levels of flooding on their properties. Landholders south of the Markwood spillway built between McCormack Bridge (Tarrawingee) and Pioneer Bridge (Everton) has around 34 properties impacted by
BY BAILEY ZIMMERMANN bzimmermann@ nemedia.com.au
floods which is “cutting farms in half”. The community was concerned there is too much water going down the spillway into an old channel, overflowing properties and
nearby roads. Since its construction in 2017, landholders have reported that flooding now occurs at a lower river level than prior to the construction of the spillway, with the onset of flooding commencing at a Rocky Point river height of 2.3m compared with 2.7m. Markwood resident, Eberhard Kunze, said the
rise in flood events at his property was having a huge financial and management impact on around 11.5km of country. “Through my place and the property just next door, the waterway is about 1.5m deep and totally inaccessible, even with the tractors,” he said. “If you’ve got stock on the other side, you can’t get them
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out or get to them. “I’ve got 80 acres here and probably half of it is cut off and the block next door where the spillway actually is, there’s cattle on that and around three quarters of it is cut off, I virtually can’t get on the place at all. “We’ve had some reasonably wet winters and that can go on for two or three months at a time,
so it’s making managing the properties extremely difficult.” The Markwood spillway was constructed on the Markwood-Tarrawingee reach of the Ovens River by North East Catchment Management Authority (NECMA) to secure a breach in the bank as a result of flooding in winter of 2016. ■ Continued page 2
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