River of anxiety for those on wrong side of Echuca levee

Locals are wading through knee deep water on their street in Echuca as the flooding crisis grows worse.

From gun metal to gumboots: Kiara Dean surveys her house. Picture: Arsineh Houspian.

Residents in the northern Victorian town of Echuca say it’s hard to believe the Murray River is peaking as sandbags around their homes fight more water from torrential rainfall and a current whose speed is increasing daily.

A makeshift 2.5km-long and 2m-high levee, constructed in two days last week, was doing its job in protecting the town from a wall of muddy water on Monday but for those who live on the river side, it was slowly rising around their properties, with some already under water.

From about 10pm on Sunday through to Monday afternoon, shifts of heavy and light rain fell on the sodden town.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported 34mm of rainfall in the 24 hours to 9am on Monday.

After Victoria SES chief Tim Wiebusch said authorities believed the Murray had peaked on Monday, the BOM issued a fresh warning that it might reach its highest level at just below 95m on Tuesday, with major flooding.

“On the Murray River, in and around Echuca down to Torrumbarry, we have seen the flooding reach a level of 94.9m, what the bureau has now forecast as the potential peak,” it said.

“We may see a very small rise above that. But it’s intended to stay steady at that level for several days before we’ll start to see it receding in and around Echuca.”

Locals who live on the river side of the man-made levee are now completely surrounded by water, and some believe it could rise further.

They include Kiara Dean, 20, who surveyed the damage on her street after she returned three weeks ago from ­Croatia, where she secured the world shooting champion title. “The last two months have just been insane,” she said. “It’s been the highest of highs and lowest of lows. My dad was saying (I have) gone from gun metal to gumboots.”

Meanwhile, Mark Lia and Jade Walsh have single-handedly been delivering pumps to get water that seeped through sandbags at properties on the wrong side of the levee. They answered calls for help from stranded residents like Robyn, who lived on Goulburn Road and desperately needed more sandbags to fortify her home.

Mr Lia, whose house is currently dry although surrounded by water on the wrong side of the levee, has multiple trips in the past five days in his ute through rising flood waters across a 200m stretch to help neighbours.

“I’ve done 40, 50, 60 trips. Each trip takes about 1½ tanks of petrol,” he said.

Most residents on the river side of the levee said no one from the council had conducted a welfare check on them, and the SES and Defence Force had not helped them sandbag their properties ­because they had been told to evacuate. Many do not want to leave for fear they will be robbed.

Light rain continued to fall on Echuca about midday on Monday with another 20mm predicted.

The Murray overflow is expected to hit Swan Hill by the end of the month and could reach as far as Robinvale before surging on to Mildura in November, emergency services warn.

Though it is still too early to forecast floods levels in those regions the SES has told residents to start preparing.