The Murray River has risen after recent heavy rains.
Photo by
Gabriel Garcia
A moderate flood warning has now been issued for Murray River downstream of Tocumwal and Barham.
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The warning was issued Monday evening, with predictions the Murray River would reach moderate flood levels at Barham yesterday.
Locally, in what is an all too familiar sight, the popular Thompson’s and Town Beaches on either side of the Murray are completely inundated.
Town Beach was closed by Berrigan Shire Council because of the rising levels halfway through the Victorian school holidays, and before NSW schools paused for their winter break starting last week.
Yesterday, the NSW SES said the river at Tocumwal is starting to “steady and flatten”.
At the time of going to print yesterday it was 5.37m, up 7cm from Monday.
The river reached just over 4m last week.
While the SES anticipates a little more water coming out of Victoria to cause levels to fluctuate, it did also note the rain was slowing.
The rising levels are a result of releases from the Hume Dam, which were increased from Wednesday last week, and inflows from Victoria.
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority said the 25,000 megalitre a day releases from Hume are to gain more airspace while storage levels remain higher than average for this time of year.
MDBA senior director river management Joe Davis said the releases are at channel capacity downstream of Hume at Doctors Point, but may be increased if rainfall and inflow forecasts strengthen.
“We are working closely with the Bureau of Meteorology to monitor forecast rainfall in the area over the coming days,” Mr Davis said.
“Releases from Hume Dam are currently targeting 25,000 megalitres per day at Doctors Point but could safely be increased to around 32,000 megalitres per day in the coming days to gain airspace ahead of predicted rainfall.”
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