Short reprieve as new flood front threatens

A slew of fresh flood warnings have been reissued across parts of NSW’s Central West and Riverina regions, after emergency services ordered hundreds of residents to evacuate Forbes and Wagga Wagga.

Floodwaters continue to fall across parts of NSW, despite emergency services issuing fresh warnings to Wagga Wagga and Forbes. Picture: Dylan Coker

A slew of fresh flood warnings have been reissued across NSW’s Central West and Riverina regions, after emergency services ordered hundreds of Forbes and Wagga Wagga residents to evacuate their homes and prepare for further disruption over the weekend.

As flood waters continue to impact large swathes of eastern Australia and northern Tasmania, NSW emergency services said 600 residents along the Lachlan River had evacuated their homes, with crucial road infrastructure and some 250 dwellings affected by the flooding.

Across the southern and western parts of the state, several inland rivers are forecast to remain at a moderate to major flood level for more than a week, including the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee, Upper Macintyre and Murray rivers.

Wivenhoe Dam flooding into Brisbane and Ipswich earlier this year. Picture: Liam Kidston

On Friday, emergency services said much of central Forbes had been cut off by flood water, while high-clearance trucks were still delivering essential supplies to Wee Waa in the Namoi Valley because of residual flood water.

While inflows to the Wyangala Dam continue to decrease, after Water NSW released hundreds of megalitres from its major dam sites last week, the floodgates of Queensland’s Wivenhoe Dam will be opened this weekend to increase capacity.

The dam came close to overflowing in February when Brisbane received 80 per cent of its annual rainfall in six days, but authorities say the current releases would help combat sustained flood risks throughout the wet season.

“We’ve all seen what has been happening with devastating flooding in NSW and Victoria,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said. “We must be ready for the worst.”

The Queensland decision comes as the Perrottet government continues to lobby the federal government to support its $2.6bn project to raise the walls of the Warragamba Dam.

Elsewhere, record-breaking rainfall hit northern and north west Tasmania on Thursday and Friday, with major flooding occurring along low-lying properties of the Macquarie, Mersey and North Esk rivers.

A shipping container washed away on Tasmania’s Deloraine. Picture: Alex Treacy

Overnight rainfall reached up to 350mm across parts of Deloraine, Latrobe, Railton, Kimberly and Merseylea, where hundreds of residents were placed under evacuation orders.

On Friday, emergency services warned river peaks in parts of northern Tasmania could reach levels not seen since mid-2016, when flooding claimed three lives and caused widespread damage.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the weekend would bring a “brief reprieve” for Queensland, NSW and Victoria until a new front emerged by next week.

“What we’re seeing now is conforming to a common nationwide cycle during this season, with only light and isolated showers forecast across the weekend for parts of inland NSW, eastern Queensland and in Victoria,” BOM meteorologist Dean Narramore said.

“This will offer some reprieve, especially for Victorians, but by Wednesday a low, cold front from the west will move over eastern Australia. The front will be centred more to the north than last week, but it will likely span the entire eastern coast from Brisbane to Melbourne, but focus heavily on eastern Queensland and northern NSW.”

The bureau said the current cycle made fortnightly predictions unreliable, with the arrival of a new weekly front making Australia’s third La Nina year “especially unpredictable”.