Giant rain-fed inland sea threatens rural communities in Australia

Emergency services were focusing on Swan Hill, a town 210 miles north-west of the Victorian capital of Melbourne, where the Lodden and Murray rivers meet.

The floods are expected to peak there during midweek when the sea arrives.

Volunteers have spent the past week piling tens of thousands of sandbags around the community, a town of 10,000 people, Mayor Greg Cruickshank said.

"We're nearly to the point to where we are as prepared as we can be," he said. "If there happens to be inundation, it certainly won't be for lack of trying."

Australia's flood crisis began with record rains in November that left huge parts of the state of Queensland under water, killing 30 people, damaging or destroying 30,000 homes and businesses and causing at least three billion Australian dollars (1.9bn) in damage to crops and lost coal exports.

The state capital and the country's third largest city, Brisbane, was swamped for days. The flood is now moving across south-east Victoria state, where driving rains have forced swollen rivers over their banks.

Ahead of the inland sea, several hundred residents were evacuated yesterday from tiny communities east of Swan Hill.

At 55 miles long and 25 miles wide, the inland sea is 350 square miles larger than Paris.

Yesterday the small community of Murrabit West, about 30 miles east of Swan Hill, was urged to evacuate as water from the Murray began spilling over the levees protecting the township.