State duty officer Ian Bonython said this week’s 42 gigalitres a day flows are expected to surge to 60 gigalitres, threatening low-lying shacks on the riverbanks with flooding.

“What we are doing as an agency for flooding is providing a lot of information for alerts, warnings and working with locals to make sure they are aware if they need to evacuate or take precautions like putting furniture up to top levels,” he said.

Mid Murray Council Mayor Dave Burgess said roads were cut off to some river bank shacks in his district and there were some shack areas where sewer systems had been switched off because they are low lying and posed a risk.

“Some shacks are closed off at the moment and the department of environment has also closed some of their areas because of the threat of high water and the danger to people going into those regions,” he said.

“I think the water will go down and then come up high again two or three times or more over the next few months, subject to what happens, if you get an event like what happened in Port Augusta this week, there’s a lot out of our control.”

Boat owners were being urged to remain vigilant with mooring boats as the water rose, “and they need to be just as vigilant when water goes down or they will end up on the bank”.

Across the council area some jetties had been released to be floating moorings so they were not damaged, these had been closed for use to protect people, Burgess said. The council is also making sandbags available.

He also said more people were visiting to see the high water “things like this only happen every 10 years at best” and the rejuvenation to flood plains, black box and river red gums, yabbies and fish breeding, was welcome.

“It is going to regenerate the flood plains, we’ll see mini forests come up in spots,” Burgess said.

Riverland flood plains filled with water. Pic: Department Environment and Water.

Water is approaching the top level of Lock 1 infrastructure at Blanchetown but a SA Water spokesman said operations would continue as normal as high flows were monitored with the Environment and Water Department.

At popular houseboat mooring spot, Bow Hill General Store, Ebony Weber said there had been a number of shack owners travelling to secure their homes or holiday houses in the region but the business was on safe, higher ground.

“People have had to be careful at the boat ramp with the water rising and there’s a lot of things that have been submerged that they can’t see,” she said.

“The river is looking healthy but it’s a strong flow that can be dangerous.”