The Latrobe council has commissioned a report on how to protect itself from future flood events.

Consulting firm Entura has been brought in to explore what options the council has to mitigate flood events in the future, with a report due before the end of April 2018.

“We owe it to our community to find out whether we can protect the town and certainly we’re hell bent on doing that one way or another,” Latrobe Mayor Peter Freshney said.

“The key for us is going to be determining if mitigation is possible and finding funding sources.”

Latrobe Council was pushed to commission the $170,000 report in the wake of the June 2016 floods, which caused an estimated $180 million in damages across 20 municipalities.

Cr Freshney said if the report could find Latrobe could not be protected, then it would focus on developing a strong early warning system.

Cr Freshney said this happened in the nearby town of Railton.

“Railton is a case in point where a study has been done, it's been proven that the town can be protected (for $2.5 million) but unfortunately there’s not the funding available,” he said.

“That’s astounding.”