When a historic flood threatened northern Victoria two years ago, some residents spent three weeks building their own flood levee. Now one local has become the first to source and use new technology, typically used by governments and military as a flood barrier.
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00:00The level of water that was in our outer lounge and I'm keeping the cupboard because I want
00:07to be reminded that this is how deep it was.
00:10When flood water rose into Rumberee on the Victoria NSW border in October 2022, Tuesday
00:16Brow found herself stranded for three months.
00:19It's nearly two years and we're still cleaning up, we're still finding things that have floated
00:24in and floated out.
00:26But a big problem requires a big solution and Ms Brow has gone to extreme lengths to
00:32protect her home.
00:34She's built a high-tech barrier that's used by militaries all around the world.
00:39The lightweight barrier system consists of cells made of a highly durable geotextile
00:43fabric.
00:45The company that supplies it says it's easier to assemble than it is to fill thousands of
00:49sandbags and it thinks this is the first time a resident has imported it.
00:54I'm the first person, private person, that has bought them.
00:59Normally they're sold via government, to government departments.
01:05Helen Williams remembers the huge community effort that went into building to Rumberee's
01:09flood levy two years ago.
01:11More than 100 residents worked tirelessly over three weeks with a dozen excavators,
01:17a dozen trucks and a lot of very skilled locals.
01:21As a community we knew that the cavalry wouldn't be coming for us because they hadn't for the
01:25last 50 years.
01:27Here in Toorumbere residents are used to taking measures into their own hands.
01:31They're now calling on all levels of government to listen to them and come up with better
01:35ways to protect their communities.
01:38Give us some surety that in the future that there's a particular flood level in Echuca
01:43which is about two days of water away from us.
01:46When it hits that level that they action things that we need put in place.
01:50A community that says it's being forced to look after itself.