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Source: ONE News -
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Residents of Victoria's flood areas are still waiting to learn whether they will be evacuated, as large volumes of water continue to wash through their towns.
State Emergency Service (SES) spokesman Lachlan Quick said crews had received 3800 requests for assistance since late on Friday when the deluge began.
Volunteers will on Monday concentrate on Wangaratta and Shepparton in the state's northeast, Horsham in western Victoria and Bairnsdale and parts of the South Gippsland Highway in the east.
"Floodwater will start to be seen at Shepparton and Horsham today but won't peak in both regional centres until probably around Tuesday lunchtime or after," Quick said.
"The end's not in sight yet."
High water volumes mean relocations could continue for the next few days, but widespread evacuations have been avoided by targeting individual homes.
More than 55,000 emergency alerts have been sent out to affected residents over the weekend to warn of inundation risks.
"It's just taking a long time for the sheer volume of water to make its way through a lot of the townships," Quick said.
About 50 Defence Force personnel are due to arrive at the SES Shepparton incident control centre on Monday to help with sandbagging and assessing the worst hit areas.
Extra support for SES crews has been sought from Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia.
There are 60 homes in Shepparton and 50 in Horsham at risk of flooding, while 300 properties have so far been evacuated in the central Highlands and northeast regions.
Shepparton mayor Geoff Dobson said the town was hoping that the three waterways that meet in there - the Goulburn, the Broken and Sevens Creek - would peak at different times.
The town is on a floodplain, so it was hoped the water would spread out at Shepparton and cause minimal damage, he told ABC Radio.
"If that happens then we can hopefully minimise (damage)," he said on Monday.
The flooding did bring some benefits, such as watering the Murray-Darling system and possibly washing out some locust eggs, Dobson said.
"It may well be a lot of the locust hatchings are flooded out," he said.
"If that's the case they'll be drowned, so hopefully that might
minimise it (a locust plague)."
Thousands stuck after Birdsville deluge
Thousands of tourists remain stranded in the outback town of Birdsville, after its famous race meeting was washed out.
But local police say if there was ever a good time to be stuck in the southwest Queensland town it's now.
"All the food vendors that were here for the races are still here, so no one's going hungry," a Birdsville police spokesman said on Monday.
"It's probably the best time to be flooded, because everything's here."
The town's normal population of a few hundred swells to thousands at race time each year.
On Monday, roads to the town remained cut after heavy rains drenched the area on Friday, flooding the race track and forcing organisers to cancel the hugely popular event.
The deluge caused the first weather-related cancellation of the race in its 128-year history.
Police said two commercial airlines that serviced Birdsville had put on extra flights for tourists who needed to return home.
Most people who travel to the town for the race camp and will be having a soggy time. But the upside is that the Birdsville pub is doing a roaring trade, along with other local businesses.
"There were a few camp sites that got wet on Friday night. We're just waiting for the flood waters to recede," the police spokesman said.
He said it was hoped roads would reopen in the next day or so.
Race club spokesman Gary Brook said organisers had hoped to run the race on Tuesday, but given the amount of water that remained on the track that was impossible.
"We had hoped to run our race meeting on Tuesday but unfortunately it wasn't possible for us to get the track in a safe condition for both jockeys and horses in that time," he told the ABC.
Brook said the club would take a financial hit from the cancellation, but it was too soon to say what the losses would be.
"The race club will certainly recover and it's not something that'll cause significant problems, but it's disappointing and there'll need to be a lot of effort."
