Menindee facing prospect of record-breaking floods later this week

Around 500 people live in Menindee, a popular outback town for tourists trekking the legendary Burke and Wills expedition route.

Major flooding is occurring, with the Darling River at Menindee steady at 10.20 metres on Tuesday afternoon.

Further rises to 10.70 metres are possible from around Thursday and that level is above the 1976 flood record of 10.47 metres.

Most months of last year brought excessive rainfall to the outback townships, overfilling the catchments for the Menindee Lake dam and just before New Year as 75,000 megalitres are released daily downstream, it flooded.

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"The excessive rain we had last year filled up the catchments and created the problem," Burke and Wills Menindee Motel owner Darryl Cowie told the Daily Liberal.

His motel is hosting several families evacuated from properties on both sides of the river on the eastern end of the town.

"The township is in itself 99 per cent safe from the flood because water is flowing downstream. There were about 40 to 50 families we know that had to vacate because the water came up quickly about up to a metre and a half high up their properties," he said.

"The water is heading downstream towards the national park and people around that area had to quickly pack up, they were helped by the disaster emergency committee."

Water management is being conducted by WaterNSW at Menindee Weir, which is currently releasing 75,000ML/day through the Menindee Main Weir.

This is the equivalent of 30,000 Olympic Pools and would fill Sydney Harbour in six days.

The NSW SES has also stated flooding is expected to stay above the major level of 9.7m through to mid-January.

Despite that, Mr Cowie stated it was "not doom and gloom".

"The water is heading downstream towards the national park and people around that area had to quickly pack up, they were helped by the disaster emergency committee," he said.

There is only one road in and out of Menindee from Broken Hill, the main town 112 kilometres away, Mr Cowie said.

"All goods and services, milk and bread and all that supplies are coming in so no dramas for us," he added.

"But we want people to know it's not doom and gloom out here. The road to Wilcannia in the north is open, to the east to Ivanhoe, and in the south to Wentworth towns and Mildura in Victoria, and Menindee Road to Broken Hill is alright."

The issue, Mr Cowie stated, was tourism.

The town's history and the river and billabongs are attract plenty of visitors but the flooding is having a severe impact on a local tourism industry which is still feeling the impact of the COVID pandemic.

He hopes "word of mouth" will spread through to the east coast because they were told "it's a long way to go" before the Darling River returns to normal flow.

"We're almost zero tourists and its not accurate to say we're going under because only those in the downstream get flooded, we're pretty safe," Mr Cowie said.

Wilcannia's Indigenous community elder, Owen Whyman, a Baarkindji man, also spoke about the impact of the flooding.

The Whyman family lives along the Darling River and he has urged his children to watch the floodwater flow "because they might not see that large amount of water ever again".

"The height of this water is not as high as in 1976 when we had the flood," Mr Whyman said.

Mr Whyman is a well-known local who represented the Indigenous Aboriginal Party at the federal election last year.

His wife is a registered nurse who works as the manager of the Wilcannia Hospital. Majority of the 700 or so residents in the townships are mostly Indigenous, Mr Whyman said.

He said his tourism business, Kaaburu Tours, has been affected since the COVID pandemic when tourists shied away from visiting due to high infection cases in their town.

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The recent flood has also stopped visitation to the Darling River cruises and Aboriginal sites, Mr Whyman said.

"We are looking forward to the coming Easter holiday to hold an event so we can invite tourists to come and visit us again.

"We offer a variety of tours, dances, and bush tucker demonstrations ...but since the flooding we've been affected. We have a big Indigenous community and people work at the hospital, shop, the golf club, schools, and family services."