Police have hit out at "inconsiderate" people taking more than their fair share of sand from sandbagging stations in a South Australian river community preparing for floods.
Flood preparations are in full swing along the Murray River corridor, with the SA State Emergency Service (SES) establishing a number of local sandbagging events, seven days a week.
Each event is equipped with sand, sandbags and SES volunteers on standby to assist.
Murray Mallee Superintendent Scott Denny said several tonnes of sand taken from a sandbag filling station at Mannum late last week appeared to have been moved using machinery.
He said while the sand was freely available to the public and the act was not considered theft, it was inappropriate.
"Taking that amount of sand leaves a lot of other people that would desperately need it with no supplies," he said.
"Please use common sense and over the coming weeks we certainly will be patrolling those areas to ensure people are sharing responsibly and not helping themselves to things that aren't usually there."
A sandbag filling aid was stolen from the Mannum sandbag station a week earlier.
Police said they had still not received any information about it and called for the community to report anything they knew.
"This is a time now where the community is really rallying together ... so to see someone freely go and help themselves to an item that could be used for public safety is really a despicable thing," Mr Denny said.
Mid Murray Mayor Simone Bailey said the sand hoarding was disappointing and created problems for the whole community.
"Mid Murray Council are supporting the SA SES ... providing this service to affected landowners and if this sort of stuff happens, there's not enough sand for the next day," she said.
"People are coming across ferries and if there's no sand it doesn't help.
"We're putting the message out to please only take what you need, if you need it in bulk, give the council or SES a call if it's for a community event and we can try and help out."
