Battle to protect ‘island’ homes

Nowadays though, their primary mode of transport in is by boat.

The Buckleys have a levee bank built around two houses, a workshop and sheds at their property.

It is the only thing keeping floodwater from the Murray River away from them.

The rest of their farm is under water — ranging from one metre to 1.5m deep in spots.

Looking at photos taken from above, you can see a crop of barley close by.

Don’t be deceived about it being dry land though. Most of the crop is under water, with the top of the 1m-tall crop sticking out of the water being all you can see.

It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Buckleys as they fight to save their home and a house they rent to a friend.

They have been going flat out day and night, doing perimeter checks on the levee every 30 minutes and working to fix any breaches.

The rain has not helped, with rainwater trapped inside the levee needing to be pumped out.

“The rain has been so torrential there is internal flooding now (inside the levee),” Mrs Buckley said on Thursday.

Five or six pumps have been working to drain the rainwater over the bank and into the river.

They’ve had some close calls, including one perimeter breach at 2am where they had to rush out to fix the leak.

It is exhausting work.

Their three sons have been staying with family in town while they and a band of helpers, who drift in and out and give as much time as they can, do as much as possible to save the houses.

Mrs Buckley said it had been a fight to save the houses and the workshop and sheds that her husband used for his fabrication and maintenance business.

"We have insurance, but we're not covered for flood. They won’t cover us,” Mrs Buckley said.

Family, friends and even strangers, however, could not have done more to help the couple.

Every day is different, with between two and eight people helping look after the property.

“They rock up here and say they are here to help,” Mrs Buckley said.

“Sometimes they’re here ’til 5am.

“We had four people come up from Melbourne who we didn’t even know. They were friends of friends.

“It’s astounding and humbling. I just don’t know how to explain the generosity of people.

“It’s constant the people coming out to help, even if you don’t know them.

“People don’t want anything. They just say ‘I hope we save you’.

“There’s a lot of good people in this town.”

Mrs Buckley said some people turned up at the right time, while she and her husband were exhausted and the levee had again been breached and needed to be fixed.

“You can’t leave it,” she said.

“If it wasn’t for these people coming to help, we would already be flooded.”

Mrs Buckley said she could not thank those who had helped so far enough.

However, she and her husband have also helped others, filling sandbags for other people, and helping move furniture out of another person’s house.

“If anything comes out of this devastation from this natural disaster, it’s that we’re all better off as people because of the kindness it’s brought out,” Mrs Buckley said.

“At the end of the of the day, if I flood, I will take that from it.”

Hopefully it won’t come to that.

But while the peak has passed, the Buckleys expect their work will not be done for a while yet.

“We will be doing levee checks until the water is not high enough to be concerned,” Mrs Buckley said.

“It could be another week or two.

“We’re in it for the long haul.”