Victoria, 28 October - 8 November 2021

Storm

A strong front with associated damaging winds, accompanied by rain and hail, impacted western Victoria and was followed by additional strong fronts in the southwest and in Metropolitan Melbourne.

On 29 October, a severe weather advice level warning was issued for Dandenong, the Mornington Peninsula, the Bass Coast, Barwon Heads and Connewarre as well as community information for post-severe weather impacts in several areas including Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs.

A health advice message for COVID-19 was current during the event and there was potential for thunderstorm asthma conditions during the initial stages of the event. An air quality advice message was issued for the southwest, Wimmera, Mallee and the Northern Country for 28 and 29 October.

Intense rainfall from 28 October led to flash flooding in the mid west and north west regions. Flash flood warnings were issued on 3 November for St Arnaud Creek, Castlemaine, Campbells Creek, Wycheproof, Charlton, Wedderburn, Warracknabeal and their surrounding areas including parts of the Calder Highway.

During the event, the Otway Coast, Barwon River, Leigh River, Moorabool River, Hopkins River, Lake Corangamite, Portland Coast and Glenelg River were under a flood watch and the Fitzroy River at Heywood was under a moderate flood warning. Many areas also had minor flood warnings.

Early on 29 October, there was heavy rainfall and wind gusts in excess of 100 km/h including 146 km/h being recorded at the exposed area of Wilsons Promontory, 143 km/h at Mt William and 119 km/h at Melbourne Airport. This led to widespread damage across the south west and metropolitan areas. In the southwest, flooding and fallen trees led to road closures and a rapid influx of requests for assistance. The Geelong, Bellarine and the Surf Coast municipalities were the most impacted. High winds and heavy rainfall in the metropolitan areas led to a considerable amount of building damage and fallen trees. Debris on tram and train lines and across roads also caused public transportation disruptions, which led to the temporary closure of many schools.

On 29 October, over 526,000 households (almost a quarter of all homes in Victoria) suffered power outages; the state’s single biggest electricity outage. Outage areas were widespread across the state with some customers remaining off power for several days. Between 4.00am on 29 October and 4.00am on 8 November, there were 10,563 requests for assistance across the state including 3,899 requests for trees down and 2,238 requests for building damage. Incident control centres were established in Dandenong, Ferntree Gully and Geelong to manage the event. Five divisions were formed to assist the response, relief and recovery. All metropolitan Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) units were active for the response, along with many regional units.

New South Wales State Emergency Service (NSW SES) provided support to this event, with 44 NSW SES personnel deployed in the field across Frankston and Mornington Peninsula municipalities, and two NSW SES personnel positioned at the State Control Centre.

From swift deployment of NSW resources, effective integration of multiple agencies at Divisional Command Points and improved processes to activate generator rollout for power outages, many issues and potential improvements which were identified in the June 2021 extreme weather event were able to be applied to this event.

Lessons

After the extreme weather event in June 2021, Emergency Management Victoria established a learning review with VICSES. Its goal was to capture lessons of state-wide, multiagency significance.

The review identified aspects of particular interest to affected communities. It includes lessons identifying areas of good practice and opportunities to improve. These lessons are being shared across the emergency management sector and with affected communities through the release of the June 2021 Extreme Weather Event Learning Review - Community Report.

Several themes emerged that highlight what has worked well and areas where there is room for improvement. Some affected communities expressed gratitude for the high levels of support they received in the initial response, relief, and recovery phases. This support came from agencies, departments and other community members.

Customers who were power-dependent or experienced prolonged outages received initial welfare calls from the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and AusNet Services. These were greatly appreciated. This outreach was enhanced when Victoria Police began in-person welfare checks. Extreme weather and significant impacts on critical infrastructure affected intelligence sharing and communication. Areas identified for improvement include:

weather intelligence
command and control arrangements during simultaneous emergencies
clean-up processes for impacted areas
financial support

In response, the following has been implemented and was highlighted during the October 2021 storm:

Forecasting. VICSES and the Bureau of Meteorology are continuously working and learning together to improve the communication and use of weather forecasting and potential impacts on communities. In particular, considering additional thresholds and antecedent conditions for issuing severe weather warnings for winds. The thresholds under consideration include wind direction, wind duration and preceding rainfall patterns.

Warning system. Significant work has already been completed in late 2021 with Victoria the first to implement the new Australian Warning System that provides nationally consistent warning levels and warning icons. National implementation will be completed in 2023 providing a consistent framework for warning Australian communities for flood, severe storm, bushfire, cyclone and heat.

Warning protocol. Streamlining and strengthening of the protocols for issuing severe weather messages using VicEmergency is underway. This work also considers observations from the storm events in June 2021, November 2021, December 2021 and January 2022.

Telecommunications. The Victorian Government is pursuing a number of avenues to improve the resilience of telecommunications networks during emergencies. These initiatives are working to improve communications network coverage across the state and include:
- Co-investing in and supporting the implementation of the Commonwealth Government’s Strengthening Telecommunications Against Natural Disasters (STAND) package.
- Delivering Victorian Government mobile programs and participating in the Commonwealth Government Mobile Black Spot program.
- Delivering the $500 million Connecting Victoria

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Source

This incident was included in the Major Incidents Report 2021-22 (AIDR 2022). See the report for further information on the incident.