Authorities are defending a temporary flood levee built through residential streets in Echuca in northern Victoria as the Murray River peaked.
A three kilometre long dirt barrier was constructed to protect the centre of town from the worst of the disaster and people living on the so-called 'wrong side' were told their houses were likely to be inundated.
Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said a couple of hundred homes had been impacted by flooding in Echuca so far.
