Victorian floods: Looters target inundates homes
- Victoria Police are investigating looting in the water-ravaged suburb of Maribyrnong.
- It comes as consumers are being warned the price of fruit and vegetables could rise after flooding.
Victorians' extraordinary efforts during the flood crisis should outweigh the poor behaviour of a few, the premier says, as police investigate looting in .
Police are searching for three men after a blue Ford Territory pulled up outside a Burton Crescent home in Maribyrnong about 7am on Monday and a man went inside and stole several items.
He was wearing high-vis clothing, a beanie, and a face covering at the time. The two other men stayed in the car during the burglary, police said.
A resident of the home left earlier, acting on advice during the floods, Victorian emergency management commissioner Andrew Crisp said.
Locals help a Maribyrnong resident clean up his house that was affected by by floodwater. Source: AAP / Diego Fedele
Clean-up efforts in Maribyrnong began on Saturday after residents of about 60 homes on the low-lying tidal flat near Anglers Tavern were forced to leave.
Maribyrnong residents have complained a flood wall around Flemington Racecourse contributed to property damage in the area.
Melbourne Water has not been given a deadline to report back to the government on its review of the wall's potential effects.
There are suspicions the levee wall at Flemington Racecourse may have contributed to the flooding of homes and businesses in surrounding areas. Source: Facebook / Ellen Sandell
The Loddon River is expected to peak at 78 metres above mean sea level in Kerang, about 280km kilometres northwest of Melbourne, on Wednesday or Thursday.
A sandbag levee is expected to help keep the majority of the town dry but it could be cut off for up to seven days, Victorian State Emergency Service chief operations officer Tim Wiebusch said.
Other Victorian towns are moving to the clean-up phase, with the state government announcing a $351 million flood recovery package.
The disaster funding includes $165 million in emergency road fixes such as filling potholes and repairing surfaces to get people and freight moving.
"This is an initial amount of money and it will underpin those emergency repairs," Premier Daniel Andrews said.
SES personnel have been helping to evacuate families from towns like Shepparton that have been hit hard by flooding. Source: AAP / Diego Fedele
Federal Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said modelling indicated more than 9000 homes were inundated in Victoria's north and about 34,000 homes across the state could be flooded or isolated.
"It's quite likely we'll see a flood peak happen and waters recede, followed by another peak as different river systems come together," he told ABC TV on Monday.
At Rochester, where waters have receded to a moderate flood level, about 800 to 900 homes have flooded but it is too early for authorities to confirm the extent of the damage.
A 71-year-old man was found dead in the backyard of his home in the town on Saturday.
A warning has also been issued for the Wimmera River, with Horsham residents told major flooding is possible on Monday and into Tuesday.
The Campaspe River at Barnadown, Rochester Town and Echuca peaked on Monday morning with major flooding occurring - higher than in 2011.
Consumers warned of fruit and vegetable price hikes
Consumers are being warned the price of fruit and vegetables could rise after flooding across NSW, Victoria and Tasmania impacted key agricultural areas.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been touring flood-impacted areas in Victoria and NSW and said the continuing rain will drive prices higher.
"Tragically, there had been such a good harvest anticipated in wheat, in fruit and vegetables, in so many of the products that the Victorian food basin ... is such a rich area, as well as in areas like poultry," Mr Albanese told ABC Melbourne.
"There's no doubt that there will be an impact ... and the impact will feed into higher prices, most unfortunately at a time when inflation has already been rising."
Agriculture minister Murray Watt joined the Prime Minister on Monday to assess the flood damage around Forbes in central western NSW.
He told a media conference prime agricultural regions had been "very badly impacted by the repeated floods".
"It's likely that these floods are going to have a cost of living impact on people because of the impact of prices of fruit and vegetables," Mr Watt said.
The department of agriculture is trying to work out what financial impact flooding across parts of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania will have on agricultural production.
"I think that we can expect that it is going to be a very large dollar impact," Mr Watt said.
The federal and state governments are also discussing extra support for impacted farmers.
