As floods threaten Echuca, a fellow Victorian warned: ‘Sandbag to worst-case scenario, then go higher’

People work to place sandbag at Campaspe Esplanade in Echuca, Victoria on Monday. Authorities fear the town’s existing levee banks will not suffice. Photograph: Brendan Mccarthy/EPA

I never imagined I’d be a traffic controller on the main route into my home town of Echuca. But that’s how I spent nine hours on Sunday alongside other volunteers and emergency services staff: managing local roads.

On Monday, I was shocked to hear that my town may be in for a one-in-1,000-year flood event. Emergency Management Victoria representatives told us: “There are things that are happening that have never been recorded before. So I am not sugarcoating this. This is serious.”