A COMMUNITY effort to fortify three kilometres of flood levee by carrying thousands of sandbags “over long distances” has created hope that Kenley residents and businesses will remain protected as the Murray River rises upstream.
Emergency personnel along with the Australian Defence Force, farmers, and players from Tooleybuc Cricket Club laid sandbags around the town and Chislett Farms at the weekend after flood warnings increased by 70cm late last week.
The Bureau of Meteorology said “significant breakout flows” from Torrumbarry were causing major flooding at Wakool Junction and about 20 homes in Kenley, two kilometres from the junction, have received an evacuation order.
Chislett Farms nursery manager Jonathon Chislett said any breach in the levee would put all homes and the nursery, with its 500,000 trees, in danger.
The nursery, which grows citrus, pistachio and avocado trees, supplies Mildura Fruit Company, along with Citrus Australia.
“We've started preparing with excavators, (but) in quite a few sections of the bank, it was very hard to get machinery in,” Mr Chislett said.
He said muddy ground along the three-kilometre stretch meant help was needed to manually transport thousands of sandbags “over long distances” to the levee.
“Quite a few of the other farmers in the district have come to help us out,” Mr Chislett said. “Literally the Tooleybuc cricket club came out yesterday.”
Mr Chislett said he was hopeful the 12m levee would hold up against the expected peak.
Boundary Bend may receive major flooding later this week, but local flood warden Tim Connor said the community was safe.
But he said a levee was built at the weekend on the Murray Valley Highway to ensure the community’s road access was not affected.
"Boundary Bend's pretty lucky because the road is made to 1956 (flood) level," Mr Connor said.
"The ICC (incident control centre) was a little bit concerned because we measured the height of the water to the height of the road, and we had 30cm of clearance (at one point near the caravan park)."
Mr Connor said ICC staff built a 60cm bank on Sunday, while a working bee prepared about 420 sandbags as a reserve.
But he said there was little alarm in the community as a lot of water coming downstream had moved up the Murrumbidgee and into floodplains on the NSW of the Murray River.
"If you go straight north, it's probably 10km until you hit land.
"To get the water to rise two inches, we need thousands of megalitres to flow down.
"That's how big and wide the river is.”
Mr Connor said four houses were being monitored on the river side of the highway, but all houses had existing levee banks.