A multi-million dollar repair bill and massive clean-up effort is facing Walhalla after Thursday night’s storm.

More than 204mm of rain drenched the tourist town in less than 24 hours beginning late Wednesday morning.

But resident, business operator and Baw Baw Shire councillor Michael Leaney said early indications were millions of dollars damage to public infrastructure.

He said the town was now paying the price of years of neglect or Band-Aid treatments by multiple authorities including Regional Roads Victoria, Baw Baw Shire and the West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority.

Stone retaining walls, road edges, car parks and reserves have been smashed by the storm that brought down trees, cracked road surfaces and flooded the main street.

About eight metres of land in the Northern Gardens was washed away and power lines were hanging across the town.

The Long Tunnel Extended Mine carpark area also suffered extensive damage.

Mr Leaney said no private houses or infrastructure had sustained damaged but public infrastructure had suffered a big hit.

He said his own conservative estimates of the damage bill, supported by information from shire staff, indicated millions of dollars of damage.

For a town so often hit by bushfire during peak tourist periods, this time the town was closed to long weekend visitors because it was unsafe.

Mr Leaney said landslips and rock falls on the road from Rawson made the road into Walhalla extremely dangerous.

On Thursday, main road access for emergency services was impossible until excavators were brought into clear roads and massive trees.

“For public safety, people can’t come here.  There is no power, no phone service and it’s just too dangerous,” he said on Friday.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, Mr Leaney could hear the heavy rain bearing down.

At 4am, as he listened to the thumping sound of rocks rolling and hitting the road, he decided to brave the elements and move his car.

Mr Leaney and his partner Russell Wright waded through ankle deep water to door knock residents and alert them to the rising waters.

“There is not a lot you can do in floods other than watch things.

Mr Leaney said it was disappointing that a lot of the damage was caused by a build up of debris and poor maintenance issues.

He said once an excavator unblocked Stringers Creek, the water quickly disappeared.

“Most of the damage is in areas that were identified as areas that needed work.

“If the maintenance had been done, the damage wouldn’t be as bad.

“Everything that has happened has been predicted but there has been a lack of action by authorities.

“Now we have a multi-million price tag to fix it and we didn’t have to be in this position.

“All this damage is a blow to an already embattled tourism industry in the far east of the shire,” Mr Leaney said.