A Werribee South farmer who sought damages from Southern Rural Water after his crops were destroyed in a storm had his appeal knocked back by the Court of Appeal last week.
The market gardener, who grows cauliflowers, lettuces, cabbages and zucchinis at Duncans Road, said much of his land was flooded after a severe storm in February, 2011.
Crops were lost and part of the land became infested with a fungal infestation known as club root.
In a Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing in 2013, the man claimed the flooding was caused by the small diameter of a culvert in a drainage channel, for which Southern Rural Water is responsible.
The market gardener alleged Southern Rural Water was negligent in authorising construction of a culvert of 725 millimetres in diameter. He said it should have been larger.
The farmer’s claims were rejected by VCAT, which found the land was instead flooded by water emanating from the west and the north of the property and not the Southern Rural Water culvert in question.
VCAT also found that run-off water from the land itself contributed to the flooding.
Last week the farmer appealed on seven grounds, suggesting the tribunal was under a misapprehension as to facts and that there was a denial of procedural fairness.
The Court of Appeal also rejected the farmer’s claims.
The judges said there were no grounds for appeal as VCAT’s finding reflected the evidence before it.
