Lifestyle & Entertainment
21 February, 2025
Flood, fire and flying insects: Essential property protection for Stawell homes
Be prepared for floods, fires, flying insects and more.
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For a country whose natural beauty is often the world's envy (great weather, greater wildlife, the greatest beaches), it's easy to forget how challenging it is to live in Australia.
We've been dealing with natural threats for as long as we've been building homes to withstand them. Suffice to say, we're built a bit differently down under, and that's always been a point of pride.
But even if our homes have been built with climatic considerations in mind, it's still essential to protect your property from evolving environmental elements.
If you're a Stawell local, floods, fires, and flying insects are just the tip of the iceberg here. To develop an essential property protection plan, let's unpack what you must consider.
Protection starts with maintenance
Protecting your home takes a comprehensive plan, covering everything from disaster to detailed termite inspections.
In all cases, however, prevention is the best cure and a proactive approach is essential here. A cliché to say aloud, yes, but one that's resisted the weight of time.
Think moisture under floorboards that develop into black mold. Or a seemingly innocuous roof leak that leads to timber rot. With enough neglect or indifference, these issues fester; the repairs can end up alarmingly expensive.
Thankfully, with a proactive approach to your home maintenance, you can address these issues before they have the chance to lead to any extensive property damage.
The best place to start here is by taking a tour of your home and property and listing everything that might be susceptible to wear, tear, or natural threats.
Things like gutter cleaning, HVAC system maintenance, structural inspections, and pest control should all be considered in the development of your home maintenance to-do list.
Rising tides: the threat of floods
With the monsoon season extending across northern Australia, flooding has become even more common for many homeowners.
Add to this the fact that many of our communities were established on floodplains during colonial settlement to ensure townships were closer to waterways, and you can see there is a growing need for Australians to prepare just as much for floods as we do for bushfires.
With floodplains, adverse weather often occurs elsewhere. The problems start when the water levels begin to rise as a result of heavy, prolonged rain further up the river.
It's a threat that unfolds slowly, though no less damaging. And if the land is particularly hard and dry, flash flooding can strike in a short space of time, which is exactly what we're seeing in northern Australia right now.
How much damage a flood causes depends on how long the water takes to subside. The longer it hangs around, the more damage it does. Carpets and electrical systems are usually the first victims, but prolonged water exposure will affect a building's structure.
The same goes for properties in Stawell.
The Northern Grampians Shire has a long history of flooding, so it's essential to ensure local properties are constructed with these risks in mind.
Flood-conscious architecture and design can also help Stawell residents save serious money when it comes to flood cover on their home insurance policies.
How to protect your home from floods
It's essential to take steps to make your property as flood-ready as possible. Here are just a few measures that homeowners can take, as outlined by Victorian State Emergency Services.
Consider the following measures:
Elevating any electrical systems or utilities
Building your home using flood-resistant materials
Creating water diversions through landscaping
Inferno: the threat of bushfire
Flood is one side of the coin; fire is the other here in regional Australia. There's no slow burn with bushfires; either they damage your property or they don't.
The good news here, however, is that unlike flooding affecting properties on flood plains more often than in regions with torrential rainfall, your property needs to be directly in the firing line to be considered as being high risk for bushfires.
This means that it's a lot easier to gauge if your property is bushfire-ready vs. flood-ready. In fact, with just a few sensible protection measures, you can make sure your home is ready for days with high fire ratings.
Consider the following measures:
Using fire-resistant construction materials such as metal framing and fire-retardant cladding
Installing an automatic sprinkler system
Installing fire breaks and other defensible spaces around your home
Clear your property of any dry vegetation or overhanging branches
Pests: the ever-present threat of infestations
Pests like termites can cause irrevocable structural damage to your home if left to satisfy their hunger (hint: they're never satisfied). But there are more different types of household pests in Australia when compared to most other regions around the world.
For instance, your home could be infested with termites, ants, and cockroaches, or even snakes, mice, possums, and foxes. You don't want marsupials in your walls in much the same way you don't want termites in your underfloor.
This is why pest prevention is just as essential to protecting your property as being disaster-ready. And when it comes to pest control, you'll want to find a balance between practicing home remedies (like spritzing lemon juice to hide ant trails) and calling in professional support when it's needed.
In other words, being able to gauge when an infestation becomes a genuine hazard and threat to your property is a vital skill for all Stawell residents.
Consider the following measures:
Installing screens on doors and windows
Sealing all doors and windows
Keeping food stuffs securely in fridges, freezers, and pantries
Reducing moisture build-up around home
Scheduling regular pest inspections
Ensure your Stawell home is well-protected from season to season
Think of property protection as an evolving project, not a one-time remedy. Keep an open mind toward improvements and innovations for your home maintenance planning.
So long as you've made sure your home is protected against the region's major threats - these being floods, fire, and pest infestations - you should be able to live comfortably and securely from season to season in your Stawell home.