Recover assets and check hazards

Returning to your property after a flood

It’s important to be cautious when entering a flood-affected area. For information about returning home after a flood and precautions to take, see Vic Emergency Recovering from a flood.

Power supply and generators

For information on power supplies and generators after an emergency, visit:

Protecting farm water

An adequate supply of good quality water is a vital element of most farming enterprises. It is essential for maintaining stock health, maximising animal and plant production, and providing a good supply for house and garden use.

For information on protecting and determining the quality of farm water supplies, see:

Fencing

The need to contain stock, protect your property and respond to offers of assistance after floods can often result in fences and gateways being re-built in less-than-ideal conditions.

Prior to the clean-up and replacement of fencing, it is recommended you take plenty of photos and carefully mark the location of the original boundary fence. The boundary fence is the only fence that must go back where it was.

When cleaning up, separating old fencing materials into steel, treated timber and untreated timber will make recycling and disposal easier and more effective. Fencing wire can be salvaged and recycled but not if it is contaminated with wood.

The loss of internal fencing due to fire or flood provides landholders with an opportunity to review and upgrade the layout of their farm. This might result in minor changes to a fence alignment, changing the location of gateways, construction of a laneway or laying out and fencing your farm according to land classing and whole farm planning principles.

You might also consider offsetting your boundary fence to avoid roadside vegetation. The loss of fencing also gives landholders an opportunity to consider alternative fencing materials such as:

  • concrete or steel end assemblies
  • plain wire
  • ring lock
  • electric fencing
  • other fencing that is better able to exclude pests such as wild dogs.

Erosion after flooding

Floods can destroy vegetation, leaf litter and organic matter. As a result, the soil becomes more vulnerable to both wind and water erosion.

This movement of material can occur rapidly in the form of a flood, mudslide or debris flow or more slowly as a landslide. Some soil erosion is inevitable following a bushfire.

Controlling much of this erosion can be quite difficult; it is important to focus your efforts on protecting your family and farm.

For more information, see:

Weed management

For information on managing weeds after an emergency, see:

Stock containment areas

Grazing paddocks after a flood can result in significant damage to your pastures, soil and water supplies. Newly emerging pastures can be destroyed, soils exposed to erosion and dams polluted from increased sediment loads.

Confining your stock to a sacrifice paddock or stock containment area can protect the rest of your farm as well as providing an efficient and effective way to feed, water and care for your stock.

A sacrifice paddock, or temporary stock containment area needs to be relatively small, stockproof, close to your house and have suitable feeding and watering facilities.

Permanent stock containment areas are used by many farmers across Victoria to manage stock during droughts, fires and floods. A permanent stock containment area is a carefully selected and designed facility to intensively hold, feed and water livestock for short periods of time.

In some cases, a planning permit may be required; it is recommended you check with Agriculture Victoria staff or local council planning office before commencing construction.

See Stock containment areas and Planning requirements for feedlots for more details.

Different breeds and species adapt differently to containment areas so ongoing observation of the stock is necessary to assess feeding patterns and adaptation to feed rations.

Some sheep and lambs may not adapt well to the containment area, so monitoring is essential to ensure they are all getting access to feed and water.

Recovery of horticultural crops

Floods can impact a range of horticultural crops, so it’s important to assess your crops, orchards and vineyards as soon as possible after flooding.

For information, visit Orchard management.

Page last updated: 20 Aug 2024