Water NSW and Indigenous volunteers jointly saving sacred burial and artifacts sites on flooded Menindee Lake

After a community meeting about the flood, attended by many residents on Tuesday night at Menindee, Indigenous residents who raised their concerns have forged an agreement with Water NSW to urgently work together to save the sites.

"Major lakes, including Lake Cawndilla and Lake Menindee, have been utilised to capacity throughout 2022, under operating rules which also recognise the need to safeguard infrastructure and protect significant cultural heritage sites and artefacts found at the uppermost level of the lake foreshores," Water NSW said in a statement to the Daily Liberal.

"Water NSW is carefully managing storage levels in the lakes to prevent water reaching the level where those sites and artefacts will be inundated and impacted.

"Water NSW is in regular discussion with local stakeholders and residents in Menindee, including with the Local Aboriginal Land Council."

On Saturday, January 7, Menindee residents met with NSW premier Dominic Perrottet and emergency services minister Steph Cooke who came to inspect the flood in the township that started before New Year as the Darling River surged from previous months' heavy rainfall.

As a result of rains that flooded many of the inland towns in the central west, Menindee Lakes dam has recorded more than 117 per cent water inflow, and Water NSW has started releasing water from 35,000 gigalitres per day to 75,000 gigalitres per day to reduce the dam's capacity.

Water NSW team leader in Menindee Barry Philp, a Ngiyeempaa man, members of the Menindee Local Aboriginal Land Council (MLALC), and volunteers with the Barkandji Native Title Group have begun working together "to ensure floodwater inflow will not disturb the significant sites", MLALC director Michelle Kelly said.

"Not all of our problems have been met but at least the anxiety has gone out, and we're not blaming them [Water NSW] it wasn't their fault," she said.

"They are doing what they can to help us preserve them so at the moment, they won't let overflow to be over the capacity recommended as a precaution."

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Mrs Kelly said even if they didn't get the chance to have a one-on-one meeting with the premier, the residents' "anxiety" and "frustrations" about the flood are at the forefront.

"We should not be missing completely on these issues because people have received mixed information, and there are inconsistencies with messaging to us," she said.

"The flood level is currently sitting at 10.25 metres but having no council means the shire is not run by local people but representatives of government agencies from Broken Hill and not local people in Menindee".

Mrs Kelly said they had asked the Local Emergency Management Committee to include two members of the local Indigenous community to take part in the flood management of the township.

"We have invited the shire general manager Greg Hill to meet with us but we haven't received any response," Mrs Kelly said.

Menindee is also receiving a large amount of water from the overflowing Murray River as a result of the heavy rainfall in South Australia flowing at the Wentworth township's side of the Darling River.

Menindee Lakes has four main lakes - Cawndilla, Menindee, Pamamaroo and Wetherell - with a combined water storage capacity of 1,731,000 megalitres which Water NSW likened the capacity to three and a half times the amount of water on Sydney Harbour.

Cawndilla Lake, a large area of the lake systems has been identified to contain many Aboriginal burial sites including dreaming sites and shell deposits.

The NSW State Emergency Service said floodwater in Menindee is expected to reach 10.75 metres with other townships such as Wilcannia, Tilpa and Wentworth on floodwatch over the week.

The SES said as the peak moves slowly downstream of Menindee along the Darling River, they are urging residents to stay up to date with the latest information through the SES website and reminded locals and visitors never to enter floodwater.

Concerned residents can call the NSW SES on 132 500 for emergency help with flood while for life threatening situations, to call 000.