Business owners from ridge-top communities gathered for a business recovery meeting in Olinda last week as many remain closed due to road closures and loss of tourists following the storm.
Held at Olinda Tea House & Restaurant, concerned business owners piled into the centre to listen to the update organised by Yarra Ranges Tourism on Tuesday 29 June.
Victoria Police Regional Emergency Response Coordinator Robert Raaymakers delivered an update on the state of road closures.
Many business owners questioned the positioning of roadblocks which currently sit directly before Mt Dandenong and Olinda business districts rather than at the start of the Tourist Rd, effectively allowing the public up the mountain before being turned away.
Mr Raaymakers said the issue with roads is that some are council roads and others fall under the Department of Transport (DoT).
“The DoT roads are the priority at the moment to get open as soon as we can, but there are a number of trees that are hazardous trees that are ready to fall, so we can’t open them just yet,” he said.
According to Mr Raaymakers, as of 29 June there were 300 council owned roads not yet deemed safe.
“If we were to place traffic management points at all of those 300 roads you can imagine the logistical nightmare we would have,” he said.
“Just because they might be accessible doesn’t mean they are open to the public,” he said.
Mr Raaymakers said police, DoT and council were in contact every day to assess the situation with roads and were working to get a “better picture” last week about whether Olinda-Monbulk Road could be opened up to allow public access to shops in Olinda and Mt Dandenong.
It was announced on Thursday 1 July that Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, Emerald-Monbulk Road, Olinda-Monbulk Road, Mountain Highway and Ridge Road are now open to people delivering essential supplies to local residents, such as food and equipment.
Mt Dandenong Tourist Road between Sassafras and Olinda needs to remain blocked due to high levels of destruction that occurred during the storm on 9 June.
“This is the storm version of Black Saturday. That’s what other people off the Dandenongs need to appreciate. They are already talking about the recovery from this event as being significantly more than Black Saturday, so let’s put that into context around why we’ve got a lot of angst in opening roads to the public in this scenario,” Mr Raaymakers said.
Department of Transport Deputy Regional Agency Commander Fiona Green told the crowd “it’s not just about what you can see driving, it’s about what’s above your head”.
“It’s also off to the side and perhaps down the hill that you can’t see where a tree root may have come out and destabilised the road. Our primary purpose is not only to provide you access, but to actually make sure those roads are safe,” she said.
Heavy machinery is expected to be on the mountain clearing dangerous trees for some time requiring a reduction in vehicle traffic.
“We are very aware of all the businesses wanting to reopen and we are very conscious of that,” Ms Green said.
A concerned business owner questioned whether the DoT could put out a guide that makes it easier to apply for business interruption insurance, saying it is difficult to explain to insurance companies why businesses are closed if one road is open and the other is not.
Business owners were encouraged to check VicTraffic to see when updates were posted to satisfy their insurance companies of road closures.
Others were concerned about whether employees who reside off the mountain were allowed to come up to work. Business owners were reassured employees can drive up the mountain and will be allowed through to work, however, the most important thing to be doing is trying to keep traffic off Hills roads.
Mr Raaymakers said once roads do reopen, the message to tourists will be “keep looking out for trees, be aware of your safety”, with tree falls expected to be an ongoing issue after the severe weather.
Yarra Ranges Tourism CEO Simon O’Callaghan said the tourism organisation will be keeping a “close watch” on Parks Victoria closures with a view to getting the nature-based and walking assets “back up and running”.
“We have an emergency tourism crisis response and recovery structure that we operate with so that we can adequately feed information from our business community up into the effective government decision making channels and that of the emergency services. There are a lot of pre-existing systems behind the scenes that act on your behalf and they have been run and run over many different emergencies,” he said.
Yarra Ranges Council advised Dandenong Ranges businesses to join a local business group to get into their communication channels, such as Villages of Mt Dandenong.
Council’s Manager of Economic Development and Investment Helen Ruddell said council is working on a submission into the Victorian Government for short term and long term funding to support the whole community, including businesses. Council will also be hosting a number of other community engagement sessions.
