Drenched and anxious, Victorian and Tasmanian communities band together as flood waters rage
Emily Buchanan had spent much of Thursday watching the Goulburn River spill over the river flats. She lives at Seymour, in the southern end of the Goulburn Valley, on a house high on a hill overlooking the river as it flows south of the town.
The river spilled its banks at 1pm, Buchanan said, and by 4pm the water was “appreciably” higher.
“It has come up much more now,” she told Guardian Australia. “It has been raining constantly now for well over 24-hours. There has not been a break in the rain.”
Buchanan left home to go to Melbourne at 7am on Thursday morning, but turned around when she saw the condition of the roads. Water was spilling over already damaged areas, causing the asphalt to lift up; trees were down; and sections of the road were underwater.
By Thursday evening people in the towns of Seymour, Carisbrook and Rochester had been ordered to evacuate immediately as flood waters threatened the towns.
On a community Facebook page, residents worked to arrange the evacuation of horses and other livestock standing in flood waters.
Jacob Styles, of Styles Civil Hire, spent the afternoon digging a trench outside a property to divert water away from the house. His and other local civil engineering firms have offered to dig trenches and clear rubble or roads for free.
In Kilmore, about 40km south of Seymour, the racecourse was under water.
Sonia O’Gorman, the director and stud manager at Glen Eden Stud, sent her staff home early after a culvert at the entrance to the farm collapsed. She wasn’t able to get out to get her daughter to school in nearby Whittlesea, but that turned out to be for the best: by mid-afternoon the school had told parents to collect their children early before conditions became even more dangerous.
St Mary’s College at Seymour and 12 kindergartens and schools in the Macedon Ranges were closed because of the weather.
The dry creek at the back of Glen Eden burst its banks for only the second time since O’Gorman moved to the property more than two decades ago.
“We are wet, wet, wet,” she said. “We are in the middle of the breedings season so we have got very young foals – I have had to go and put quite a few in boxes (stables) because they are too young to cope with it.”
At Heathcote, near Bendigo, water had begun to enter homes on Thursday afternoon. High Street was flooded.
There was flash-flooding and roads closed from Wedderburn to Castlemaine to Ballarat in the west, and Wangaratta in the east.
The heavy rain event that has drenched the south-eastern corner of Australia for two days threatens to cause the worst flooding that some parts of the state have seen for almost 50 years.
In Seymour, emergency authorities said, the Goulburn River would reach levels not seen since the 1974 flood. Up to 187 properties may be inundated, Victorian SES chief operations officer Tim Wiebusch told reporters on Thursday.
Shepparton is expected to experience its worst flood in almost three decades on Saturday afternoon, with up to 600 properties isolated.
Most of the state is under some form of flood warning after more than 36 hours of soaking rain. The heaviest falls were 160mm at Strathbogie and 145mm near Euroa.
By mid-afternoon, the Victorian SES had conducted 30 flood rescues of people who had driven on to flooded roadways. Drivers have been repeatedly reminded not to drive on to flooded roads, even if it is an area familiar to them.
The SES has received more than
1,600 calls for help and at least 10,000 people have been left without power since the wild weather began on Wednesday.
An emergency warning was issued for the town of Rochester, 27km south of Echuca, on Thursday afternoon, with anyone still in the town told to evacuate immediately before the Campaspe River peaks on Friday.
Up to 700 properties in the town are expected to be isolated and emergency services said the flood could last for up to 10 days.
Emergency warnings were also issued for further down the Campaspe River at Lake Eppalock, Seven Creeks in Euroa and for the Goulburn River between Lake Eildon and Seymour.
Northern Tasmania ravaged by floods
It was a similar story in Tasmania. In the drenched northern half of the island, residents were ordered to evacuate as rivers rose to levels comparable with deadly flooding six years ago.
Heavy rain across the northern half of the island state began on Wednesday night and is not expected to ease until early on Friday.
Residents of an area stretching from Liena to Latrobe were on Thursday evening ordered to evacuate if safe to do so, with the region’s Mersey River breaking its banks.
Those along the Meander River from Meander to Hadspen were also told to leave their homes.
Peter Freshney, the mayor of Latrobe, said the community was anxious but prepared.
“We are much better prepared than we have previously. We’ve got SES throwing out sandbags in low-lying areas and houses in low-lying areas have been door knocked,” he said.
He said people who experienced the 2016 floods were likely to be hit again – but this time the community was ready.
“The difference is we’ll be evacuating people before rather than during,” he said. “We understand a number of people have relocated to family and friends’ premises. They’re taking the advice and getting settled in alternative accommodation for the short term.”
Ten minutes up the road from Latrobe, punters were enjoying a late afternoon beer at the Railton hotel on Thursday as the river out the back ballooned.
“It’s running but it’s safe at the moment,” publican Caroline Broomhall said.
“We’re two stories, so if we need we’ve got upstairs.”
Broomhall said everyone was calm hoping it didn’t get worse overnight.
“We’ve got sand bags ready and then we just watch and do what we need to,” she said.
Thirty minutes south Sara Stanhope had evacuated all her customers from the Mole Creek Caravan Park. Most of their sites were underwater, and they were expecting it to get worse overnight.
“They say the rains won’t stop till tonight and as we’re speaking it’s getting heavier,” Stanhope said.
Stanhope said they would lose another week of business, as the flood will be followed by mud, making it impossible for campers to set up.
But the town was in good spirits, with neighbours checking in on each other and making others were prepared.
“Everyone is watching and waiting,” Stanhope said.