Melbourne - Australia's flooding crisis headed south on Monday into Victoria state, where record floods were predicted for several rural communities facing rivers swollen from heavy upstream rains.
Officials expected floodwaters to drown out highways and isolate dozens of towns in the northeastern part of the state in some of the worst flooding there in a century.
Residents are wary after three weeks of devastating flooding caused 28 deaths in the northeastern state of Queensland. The region's key Murray-Darling river basin links that state with New South Wales and Victoria to the south, and drains into the sea via South Australia on the south-central coast.
In Victoria, State Emergency Services spokeswoman Natasha Duckett warned that the Victoria town of Horsham could face a major flood during Monday's expected peak of the Wimmera River, and electricity supplier Powercor was sandbagging its substation there to ensure it remained dry.
“The Wimmera River is higher than the levels seen in September 2010 and it's still rising,” Duckett said. “The township could be bisected with a waterway right through the middle of town and the (Western) Highway cut.”
Up to 500 properties in the town of about 14 000 people could be affected.
More than 3 500 people have evacuated their homes in north-central Victoria state, with 43 towns and 1 500 properties already affected by rising waters.
The flooding in Queensland left a vast territory underwater and caused 28 deaths, most of them from a flash flood that hit towns west of Brisbane on January 10. Fourteen people are still missing.
Flooding has also spread from Queensland into New South Wales, where nearly 7 000 people are reliant on airdrops of food and other supplies after being isolated by floodwaters. - Sapa-AP