Nine catchments across northern Victoria are under a flood watch, with the Bureau of Meteorology expecting minor flooding to be possible from Tuesday as rain crosses the state from Monday night through to Wednesday morning.
The flood watch was issued at 2:06pm AEST on Sunday. It covers the Upper Murray and Mitta Mitta rivers, the Kiewa, the Ovens and King, the Broken, Seven and Castle creeks, the Goulburn from Eildon to Seymour and again downstream of Seymour, the Loddon and the Avoca.
The Bureau describes the forecast falls as moderate and has not put a millimetre range on them in the watch. What it has said is that the ground underneath them is already wet. Catchments across the watch area are saturated and stream levels are elevated after recent rain, so rivers will respond quickly. If rainfall lands at the upper end of the forecast, the Bureau says isolated moderate flooding is also possible.
Flooding is still running in some of those catchments now. On the Avoca, the Bureau issued warning number 18 at 10:28am AEST on Monday and dropped the classification from moderate to minor. At 10am the river at Charlton Town was 4.20 metres and steady, just above the 4.00 metre minor flood level, and Charlton downstream was 3.03 metres and falling. Archdale Junction and Yawong Weir were both 0.99 metres and steady. Quambatook, at the bottom of the system, was 1.41 metres and steady, and the Bureau says minor flooding may develop there from Tuesday morning as the peak arrives.
That is well down on Sunday, when warning number 17 had Charlton Town at 5.33 metres and falling at 10am.
The Loddon is doing the opposite. The most recent warning, number 20 from 11:33am AEST on Sunday, has renewed minor flooding likely at Appin South from Monday as a second peak works down the river. At 11am on Sunday, Appin South was 2.56 metres and steady against a 2.80 metre minor flood level, Loddon Weir was 5.89 metres and falling, and Serpentine Weir, Newstead and Vaughan were all steady.
On the Murray, warning number 6 was issued at 12:21pm AEST on Sunday. At midday the river at Barham was 5.51 metres and steady, one centimetre above the minor flood level, with the Bureau expecting a peak near 5.60 metres during Wednesday. Levels are forecast to hold around the minor flood level through to the end of the week as water continues to arrive from upstream. Torrumbarry Weir was 6.93 metres, Swan Hill 3.58 metres and Echuca Wharf 90.74 metres AHD, all steady.
A minor flood warning for the Kiewa River at Bandiana is also current.
The pattern that has run through northern Victoria for the past fortnight is a first rise passing a gauge, the catchment upstream continuing to drain, and a second smaller rise following it down. The rain arriving on Monday night lands on rivers that are still working through the last lot.
The Bureau will reissue the river warnings through Tuesday as the falls are recorded, and the flood watch will be updated or cancelled depending on what the catchments do. River heights are published through the day on the Bureau's Victorian and New South Wales flood warning pages. The State Emergency Service takes flood and storm calls on 132 500, and Victorian emergency information is at emergency.vic.gov.au.
