Premier Peter Malinauskas said this afternoon that the new rules would apply along the River Murray from the state border to Wellington.

The restrictions include:

• no motorised vessels can be operated
• no human-powered vessels or any other water traffic (including canoes, kayaks, surf skis, rowboats, or aquatic toys) can be operated
• no swimming, bathing or diving
• no persons shall undertake any fishing activity or place or leave any fishing apparatus (including any net, drum net, hoop net, mesh net, set line, shrimp trap and yabby pot)

The bans cover all creeks, tributaries, lakes, lagoons and other bodies of water connected to the river, with the exception of Lake Bonney.

However, they won’t apply to those who are working on or have employment related to being on the water, for those providing food, water, medical assistance, sandbags, emergency help to people or animals, or people accessing their own property.

Deputy Police Commissioner Linda Williams said police will monitor the river for those breaking the rules with an initial emphasis on educating communities.

“If people still disobey those guidelines there’s up to a $10,000 fine, people would be reported and have to face court,” she said.

“It’s in their own interests, there’s a lot of debris in the river at the moment, a lot of it is below the surface and given the colour of the river it’s very difficult to see.”

Malinauskas said waves from boats and activity on the river’s edges could damage levee banks and if those swimming or on boats found themselves in trouble, “this means emergency services have to be deployed and leave other work in the community”.

There is already a 50m exclusion zone around power infrastructure along the river, but Malinauskas said the new rules meant it was safer to keep connections in place if SA Power Networks knew people would not be anywhere in the vicinity.

Canoes are now banned on the River Murray. Photo: Facebook/Karen Werner

The Premier acknowledged the pain this would cause tourism businesses in the river communities, saying normally this time of year the waterway would be packed with swimmers, skiers and houseboats.

Residents in the Riverland had been highlighting high yabby catches as a light spot among the existing impacts of flood waters.

Rules would be reassessed as water levels fell, with State Emergency Services chief executive officer Chris Beattie saying this was likely to be at around the 100GL by February.

To date, Beattie said there have been eight levee breaches where water has gushed into nearby property.

The SES is also working to fix defects at other levees including in Cobdogla in the Riverland.

“And we are expecting more low-lying communities will be issued watch and acts,” Beattie said.

Peak flows are expected at up to 220GL across the border into Renmark at Christmas time with the peak high-water level working its way downstream.

Beattie also said work was underway to “disperse and re-oxygenate” blue-green algae Lake Bonney in Barmera after it appeared when the lake was cut off from the River Murray.