Residents of the western NSW town of Euabalong, around 420km north-west of Canberra, are in good spirits as crucial flood banks hold against the swollen Lachlan River.
Local publican, Neil Quinn, who runs the Royal Hotel, said the town had put in a massive effort to stop the floods, including septuagenarians on their hands and knees filling sandbags.
“I don’t know how we did it, but we stopped the river,” he told AAP on Sunday.
“Everything’s fine. The water’s dropping. The bank we put in held up fantastically.”
The town’s original flood banks had begun to fail the previous weekend.
“That was pretty scary,” Mr Quinn said.
Evacuation orders were issued for the town late this week, with older residents moved to higher ground, but so far Euabalong has dodged the worst of what was expected.
NSW has now marked 74 days of its flood crisis as dozens of emergency warnings remain in place on Sunday across Australia’s east and flood peaks continue to wreak havoc around inland rivers.
Across NSW, Victoria and South Australia, multiple catchments holding months of heavy rainfall paint an unfortunate picture of continued flooding for regional communities.
Overnight on Sunday, NSW SES performed one flood rescue and fielded 90 requests for assistance after it had issued a dozen emergency warnings including for renewed flooding in Condobolin and Euabalong.
Mr Quinn said Euabalong will be cut off for another month, with food and medication flown in by helicopter and anyone needing to see a doctor flown out.
He only took over the Royal Hotel four months ago but says while the floods were unexpected, it wasn’t too bad.
“It’s just the way this community has come together,” Mr Quinn said.
The Lachlan River has slowly begun to fall but remains above record levels set in 1952.
Victorians living around parts of the Murray River have also been told to prepare to evacuate as a peak approaches the northwestern towns of Colignan, Nangiloc, Iraak and Lambert Island.
Major flooding is also occurring on the Murray at Boundary Bend above the historic levels seen in 1975.
In SA, flood warnings have also been issued for parts of the upper and lower Murray River.
The river is expected to hit an early peak in December, before peaking again at higher levels towards Christmas.
