BARHAM and Koondrook townships have prepared well for the approaching Murray River flood peak.
Emergency service officials do not anticipate the expected peak to cause the devastation experienced by Murray River townships upstream.
Volunteers have filled thousands of sandbags and shire workers on both sides of the border have heightened banks.
The river is expected to reach a record level of 6.16 m at the towns about next weekend. The river was steady at 6.08 m at the border townships yesterday and had begun falling both upstream and downstream.
The previous highest flood peak for the area was experienced in 1939, 1956 and 1975 when the river rose to 6.12m, however both townships avoided flooding. Barham’s levee has been raised half a metre since.
Neither townships is expected to be flooded by the weekend’s peaks, however it is anticipated that some rural areas will suffer.
State Emergency Service controller at Moulamein, Mr Neil Whelan, said the major flood levels would affect farmland, however no homes appeared to be threatened at present.
Mr Wheland said problems would only occur if levees broke and emphasis had been placed on securing levee protection.
He said locals had prepared well for the floods and had take a co-ordinated approach to dealing with the rising levels. Excavation work has been carried out on the east and north Barham levees.
“Everyone is preparing. They’re looking after things and keeping in contact.”
Mr Whelan said the shire received 53,000 sandbags on Friday and was due to receive 30,000 yesterday, bringing the total in the area to 100,000.
He said a meeting was due to be held yesterday to discuss the local flood plan and answer any queries people had.
Kerang shire maintenance engineer, Mr Jim Richards said there were no concerns for Koondrook township following completion of work on any potential trouble spots.
“We seem to have everything under control. I don’t think it’s going to be a great problem.”
Mr Richards said locals had prepared well for the rising river levels and although there would be some rural flooding, there was currently no concern for homes in the Koondrook area.
Residents in the Shire of Cohuna are waiting anxiously to see the effects of high river levels on the Gunbower Creek system.
“At this stage the Gunbower system is under control and it’s certainly not define that it will go out of control,” shire engineer, Mr George Payne said.
“It’s extremely difficult to say what will happen,” Mr Payne said.
“We can only assume at this stage that things can be controlled.”
Mr Payne said Rural Water Corporation staff had been working hard to remove as much water from the system as they could in order to control whatever inflows occurred and flooding would now depend on the integrity of levees upstream.
State Emergency Service regional headquarters has been requested to send someone to the area to advise the shire about what action would be necessary to combat flood associated problems.
Plans to top up a levee on Tickells road in the Gunbower Island State Forest at Leitchville at the weekend were aborted.
Mr Payne said it was very difficult to gain access to the area and it was decided against using local resources for the purpose, because flooding was only expected to affect rural land.
He said volunteers had laid two layers of sandbags as a precaution around one farm house on Tickells road regarded as being vulnerable.
Surveyors have determined flood levels at homes in the area to identify any potential problems in the Golf Links Estate near Cohuna, Mr Payne said.
“If there is any danger, we’ll know which areas to put resources into,” he said.
Some parts of the Cohuna golf course may suffer as a result of flooding, however the golf club house was well above flood levels, Mr Payne said.
