Echuca man Nick has excoriated his local council over the flood disaster now swamping the town, claiming there had been funding in place for a levee since 1973.
Nick’s house is one of hundreds that have been left outside of the levee now being erected around part of the town, all but dooming it to the flood.
The council has been hammered over a lack of consultation and empathy for residents.
“My house is about to go under water. Everything I have worked for my whole life is about to be drowned and they are doing their best? I’m sorry, mate, it is crap,” Nick told Today.
“Everyone in Australia should be really frightened because the ivory towers will sink you every time. We are on our own.”
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He said he and his fellow residents had been turned into “sacrificial lambs” and the council had offered no help.
“Man, if my dog was barking at night, I would have council here tomorrow,” he said.
Echuca Mayor Chrissy Weller claimed the council also had not had a say in the placement of the levee.
“Obviously SES is the lead agency and incident control at Bendigo make these sort of decisions, and we are just one of the people that have to follow them,” Weller said.
Nick accused the mayor of “handballing” the issue on.
“I have lived here all my life. Since the ’73 floods I know for a fact that the funding was there to build the levee bank to protect all of these homes, it was never done,” he said.
