VOLUNTEERS from local service clubs filled 1000 sandbags on Saturday morning in anticipation of the high water levels.
Rotary, Apex and Lions filled the sandbags to provide a stockpile at the Borough of Kerang depot.
The bags are available to landholders from the borough depot as they are required.
Rural Water Corporation controller of operations at Kerang, Mr Ross Frantz said that although the flood levels were similar to those of 1981, many people had understood what was required to repel the flood waters and the subsequent need “to do something” had prevented any major drama.
There were dramas of sorts in the Appin South area during the weekend. Dairy farmers, Allan and Judy McGrath lost a major portion of a newly constructed levee when the water level quickly rose on Saturday.
Fortunately for the McGraths, the “blowout” occurred downstream of the main current, allowing water to cover only half of a paddock close to the dairy and main mouse.
“We were lucky it broke where it did because if it had broken upstream of the main current the water would have easily reached the dairy,” Mr McGrath said.
“I was surprised it rose so quickly. The water level is as high as 1981 and as bad as I have seen in the last 30 years.”
Tragowel farmer, Mr Ritchie Theobald had 120 hectares of his farmland inundated.
“I knew it was coming and was able to get organised, but the fact that it rose six inches (15cm) on Saturday night was proof of how much water was coming down from Canary Island,” he said.
Appin South mixed farmers, Alan and Glenys Evens’ property was almost submerged by the flood waters.
Mr Evens said the water level was comparable with the damaging 1974 flood and was “definitely higher than in 1981.”
He said a decision to top up the levees around the house prior to Saturday’s peak had been a Godsend despite some water getting to the house via a damaged sullage pipe.
Most of Mr Evens’ 20 ha lucerne crop was inundated on Saturday.
“We decided to diversify into lucerne from sheep and cattle so any impeding loss will be a blow,” Alan Evens said.
He disappointed that the newly formed bitumen road at Appin South had caused a water build-up on the upstream side of the water flow.
“When we had gravel road, the water would run away no long afterwards, but the bitumen caused about a 5-inch (13cm)” on the upstream side,” he said.
Kerang residents, Ian and Julie Wilkinson, were forced to sandbag around their Lower Loddon residence as water levels in the Pyramid Creek and the adjoining Loddon River began to rise.
About 20 friends and neighbors helped fill and place the sandbags in position.
Mr Wilkinson said the excess water from the Loddon tended to push the waters of the Pyramid Creek back around his property, creating a potential flood risk off Weir road.
He said he was sandbagging right around the property to prevent this possibility occurring when the flood peak arrived.
Flooding Information
The Shire of Kerang offices in Victoria will be the Displan headquarters for coordinating flood protect efforts.
Details about flood levels and expected peaks are available 24 hours per day by ringing a recorded flood warning message on 52 2307
