A NEW kilometre long levee bank was pushed up at Euston this week to protect the town from the rising Murray River.
Senior Constable Ala Gale, of Euston police, said the levee had been built under the Balranald shire emergency management plan.
“The water’s already at the bottom of the new levee, which has stopped it spreading any further,” Sen Const Gale said.
He said the levee had been pushed up along the river from Cowper Street, across the recreation oval to the edge of the Road Traffic Authority compound at Euston.
Sen Const Gale said high river level caused problems along that stretch two years ago.
He said the new levee, about 1.6m high, would link up to the existing levee bank system.
Sen Const Gale said 61,000 sandbags had been brought in from Dubbo and Bourke to Euston, which would act as a distribution centre for centres including Mildura, Wentworth, Wemen and Boundary Bend.
He said the river was expected to peak at Euston in the first or second week of November, with the Murray rising “four inches a night”.
The Maritime Services Board has closed the Murray from Tooleybuck to Robinvale for all commercial and pleasure craft other than emergency craft.
Meanwhile the State Emergency service at Balranald said the first flood flow in the Murrumbidgee River which peaked at Darlington Point was expected at Balranald by the first week of November.
The Bureau of Meteorology predicts the river will peak at just below 6.4 metres on the Balranald gauge, causing minor flooding on the Murrumbidgee River and Peacock Creeks system.
Further information is available from local controller Malcolm Barry, telephone (050) 20-1300 (business) or (050) 20-1619 home.
