Hundreds left stranded on ‘wrong side’ of town’s flood levee

The Echuca community rallied to protect itself from rising flood waters, but left some residents to fend for themselves.

Hundreds of residents of flood-hit Echuca in Victoria have been left cut off from the rest of the town after being left on the wrong side of the town’s temporary levee.

Amid torrential rain, the community banded together earlier this week to build the three kilometre-long, two metre-high barrier against the rising Murray River, but residents whose houses were left outside the barrier say they have been made “sacrificial lambs”.

Echuca resident Nicholas Dean said the council’s decision not to protect his home left him feeling “gutted”.

Echuca resident Nicholas Dean said he was made to feel like his house was “not worth saving”. Picture: Nine News

“To get the news that the shire were putting a levee bank in was great, but to find out they were sacrificing us, it just totally guts you,” he told Nine News.

“Unfortunately we’re the sacrificial lambs out this side. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens to us.”

Mr Dean said the community was given “zero say” over the levee’s boundaries.

“300 to 400 people turned up at the community meeting, and they took five questions after they told us the devastating news,” he said.

“Two of those questions were answered with ‘I can’t answer that, thanks for coming, see you later’.”

The levee’s construction has been praised as a community effort, with residents banding together to save the town.

Echuca’s levee. Picture: Jason Edwards

Mr Dean said his family were among those that helped construct it, but were left unprotected in return.

“My wife and kids sandbagged all weekend for the community … we’re a pretty tight knit community here in Echuca,” he said.

“They spent all weekend helping the rest of the community, and then the shire put that bank up, and basically we feel like we’re not part of the community anymore, we’re not worth saving.

“Luckily we sandbagged on Sunday, got the sand bags in place. If we left it until yesterday we would have got none because the bank went up yesterday. It’s just devastating.”

Originally published as Hundreds left stranded on ‘wrong side’ of town’s flood levee