Vic floods kill livestock and destroy homes

Monday, July 02, 2007

Hundreds of head of livestock have been killed and farm houses flooded as rivers continue to rise in south-east Gippsland in Victoria.

Farmers along the border of the Great Dividing Range fought bushfires here in December but they cannot fight the wall of water rushing off the mountains.

In the Macalister Valley beef farmer Rob Gilder is waiting for the floodwaters to recede so he can account for losses in his angus herd.

One the Macalister Bridge the levees upstream have broken and cows in paddocks on the edge of town are ankle deep.

It will be some time before it is known the numbers of livestock which have not been so lucky.

Ninety people living in the Newry area on the Macalister River were evacuated to nearby Maffra overnight.

Dairy farmers Darren and Michelle Berriman decided to stay and do what little they could for their 500 stranded cows.

Mr Berriman says the next job is to clean out their flooded home, which is stressful but he says the kids are having a great time.

"There's five of us, three young kids, and they reckon it's great fun at the moment sloshing through what was their bedrooms, up over their ankles and it's a bit of fun for them," he said.

"There were a few tears early on as the water started running through the house but Michelle's fairly resilient.

"Once she got over the first initial shock of it, she buckled down and away she went again."

Sourced from ABC.