St Mary’s College Year 11 students Connor Cleave and Fletcher Christensen and principal Wayne Smith are raising awareness about the flooding of the McIntyre St viaduct. Photos: Billie Davern.
While Seymour is known for its major flooding events, a particular part of town sees more flooding than most and students are advocating for its repair.
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St Mary’s College Year 11 student Ruby Eaton contacted The Telegraph to shine light on an issue plaguing many in the school community, and in Seymour as a whole.
“The viaduct near McIntyre St floods and it can cause problems to the locals and the people that use it,” Ruby said.
“If I have to go home that way, I have to go all the way around if I don’t want to get wet and it can take me longer to get home.
“I also have to take a back road instead, which can be dangerous.”
Ruby, along with many others in the school community, hopes to draw attention to an underpass used by many students and their families, as well as those travelling to and from the Journey Early Learning Centre.
Located on McIntyre St, the viaduct frequently floods whenever the town receives significant rainfall.
“If you have a decent shower of rain and it floods, unless you’re prepared to get soaked past your ankles or higher, you can’t get through,” St Mary’s College principal Wayne Smith said.
“It doesn’t take much for it to fill up and it’s not going to go away. It’s a problem that needs to be fixed.”
St Mary’s College student Ruby Eaton has been reaching out to local organisations to resolve the flooding issue.
Mr Smith said he had been trying for a while to arrange for the viaduct’s repair and while Mitchell Shire Council had been very helpful, it was difficult to pinpoint which body was actually responsible for the structure.
Ruby’s teacher Jayne Hill said the flooding was not only an inconvenience, but a safety issue.
“There’s quite a significant number of students from our school who use that viaduct and have to walk around the longer way, which requires them to walk on the sides of roads and cross more roads,” Ms Hill said.
“When you try to walk around the other way, you have to re-cross busy roads twice more to get to the upper tunnel, or walk along the muddy side bit on the same side, so I find it concerning that young students, and that any students, are now expected to do that.”
Year 11 students Connor Cleave and Fletcher Christensen came face-to-face with the issue when walking back to school from an excursion to the Men’s Shed.
“It had rained the night before and going towards it, it was a bit flooded,” Connor said.
“But on the way back, we weren’t able to cross, we had to walk through all the puddles and we couldn’t really see under it.”
While the flooding is a prevalent issue for residents, the silver lining is the work students are putting in to advocate for the fixing of the viaduct.
“It’s empowering, it’s great,” Mr Smith said.
“I often say, the town is not owned by anyone in particular, it’s everyone’s town. It’s a bit like our college — I don’t own St Mary’s, St Mary’s is a part of everyone.
“I think these are the decision-makers of the future and to make others aware that this is an issue is important, I commend Ruby and the boys. It’s great what they’re doing.”
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