Holidaymakers have described the terrifying moment a wall of water inundated a popular campsite in regional Victoria on Boxing Day, leaving two people dead and millions of dollars worth of damage.
Those who were at the Buchan Caves Campground, about 350km east of Melbourne, said the usually sedate Spring Creek that flows through the reserve became engorged without warning on Tuesday, before sweeping away tents and caravans.
The bodies of two people believed to have been camping at the site have been found by police, who will prepare a report for the coroner.
One couple, who did not wish to be named, returned on Thursday to salvage what they could from their caravan before it was towed away.
They were part of a group of nine people in a caravan and tents on adjoining sites when rain started falling shortly before 4.20pm on Tuesday.
Water began gushing down nearby mountains towards their site, the man said, before joining the creek to the rear. Within 30 minutes, it was knee deep and they decided to flee.
When they returned to survey the damage on Thursday, they saw that all their tents had been swept away and their caravan had shifted several metres, becoming wedged against a nearby tree.
“I’m not a man who frightens easily, but it was bloody scary,” the man, from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, said.
“It was just the speed with which it happened.
“You’ve got to laugh, otherwise you’d cry. And we’ve all had a good cry.”
Jason and Karyn Argent, from Ararat in Victoria’s west, also returned to the campsite to collect any remaining belongings on Thursday.
They found one of their daughter’s swags by the creek, more than 100 metres from their caravan. One of the daughters managed to scramble down the muddy banks to salvage several teddy bears from inside.
The Argents had spent Boxing Day in Lakes Entrance, and returned to Buchan at about 5pm to find the bridge into the camping ground impassable.
“It was roaring like the ocean,” Jason Argent said.
Karyn said the water “looked like the Murray River”.
The flood claimed everything from sleeping bags to inflatable mattresses to camping chairs and an entire hot water service from a nearby Parks Victoria building.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Victoria police said it was believed the body of a man who had been camping with a woman, who had earlier been found dead, had been located.
Police said emergency services were called to Cave Road just after 5pm on Tuesday after reports of flooding in the area.
“Police were told a number of vehicles in the campground area were underwater and several people were safely retrieved from a nearby bridge,” police said.
East Gippsland shire councillor Mendy Urie said the deaths would be front of mind for the small community, before they turned to the clean up.
She was speaking from the main street of the town, where the council has set up a community liaison tent.
“Two lives lost – that’s the first issue,” Urie said. “That’s going to affect the community enormously, especially the people who were involved in the rescue.
“Almost every person here belongs to a volunteer organisation of some description.”
The council’s chief executive, Anthony Basford, who was with Urie on Thursday, said most of the properties to the west of Gelantipy Road, the main street, had been affected, as had others closer to the Buchan River.
Basford said Buchan was resilient, having also endured multiple bushfire emergencies in the five years he has served as council CEO.
Blackened trees could still be seen on some of the mountains surrounding the town, a factor which may have increased the speed with which the water flowed into town, he said.
Basford urged people to still visit the town, despite the flood forcing the closure of its famous caves, and said the council was exploring the possibility of establishing temporary alternative camping grounds nearby.
Urie said the number of extreme weather events in the region had opened the eyes of some locals to a global challenge: climate change.
“I think people’s understanding of climate change is changing, even over the past six months, 12 months.
“But I think we need to be even more aware.”
