Just before Easter, we wrote to Mr Dale Thornton, Director of Infrastructure and Operations for the Shire, to express our concern about some of the flood-related problems that have arisen in our working areas. Dale was on leave, but he asked the Acting Director,
Brendan Pearce, to meet us; so on Friday May 13th , four of us took Brendan on a tour
around Woodend.

The most important item was the damage to the bridges across the Creek between the
tennis court area and Jeffreys St, on both sides of the Creek. The Jeffreys St bridge appeared to be in a very dubious state and some of the smaller wooden slat bridges on the
north side had been washed away, while the only remaining one was definitely unsafe!
The Walking/Cycling Track has suffered considerable damage in many places between
Jeffreys St and Romsey Rd, including in the newest section of granitic sand track between
Pyke St and Bowen St.

Brendan listened carefully and observed for himself the problems that exist. He also
took a good look at some of the areas Woodend Landcare volunteers have been caring
for in other parts of the town. Our Thursday Work Crew is finding it difficult to continue
mowing Quarry, Sullivans, and Bawden Rds with domestic ride-on mowers.
At Brendan’s suggestion, we wrote a formal submission to the Council about the mowing
problem, and also wrote to the director for Environment and Planning to formalise our
working arrangements on public road reserves.

We appreciated the time taken by a senior council officer to listen to our concerns. Now
we await a formal response from the Shire – which will come, we suppose, after the
dreaded Budget has been sorted into priorities!