The assessment examined the components of the Total Flood Warning System (TFWS) based on the Australian Government’s Manual 21 – Flood Warning. The TFWS components examined were: 1. Understanding of flood risks and hazards 2. Emergency management planning 3. Community flood education 4. Data collection 5. Flood prediction and interpretation 6. Message construction 7. Message communication 8. Response 9. Review of the TFWS 10. Community and stakeholder consultation The assessment found that due to a very short warning time of up to one hour it is not possible to build a TFWS across all of the above components. The best that can be achieved is to build a system to alert residents of possible danger that triggers their prelearned actions for safety and, if possible, to reduce damages. The assessment considered several alert mechanism options. However, it found these are limited due to the very short warning time. As a result of the assessment, the following integrated package of options is recommended for a Russells Creek flood warning system: • Use of the existing BoM warning services and products including severe weather warnings, severe thunderstorm warnings and radar information and maps. • Data collection provided by the installation of two rain gauges and telemetry in the Russells Creek catchment. • An opt-in alert system linked to the rain gauges providing SMS messages to the mobile phones of flood-affected residents. • Tailored community flood education that provides pre-learning for the impacted residents including appropriate responses in relation to cues such as the BOM warning services and SMS alerts triggered from rain gauges. • A completed Warrnambool Municipal Flood Emergency Plan that addresses the proposed Russells Creek flood warning system. • Emergency management plans (including flood response appropriate actions) for the Goodstart Early Learning Childcare and the St Joseph’s Primary School. • Ongoing community consultation through a Russells Creek Flood Warning Committee to establish, test, implement and evaluate the flood warning system.