Emergency services are conducting anti-looting and crocodile-spotting patrols in the flooded Top End community of Daly River as waters slowly begin to recede.
The river peaked at about 14.7m over the weekend and its levels are dropping, but it's still too soon to say when 500 evacuated residents will be able to go home.
They have been housed at an emergency shelter in Darwin for over a week.
"The people are in very good spirits still, we appreciate the patience being shown," said Andrew Warton, director of the Northern Territory's Emergency Service.
He told reporters on Monday that no significant rainfall has been recorded in the Daly catchment area since Saturday and none forecast, but that access to the community remained restricted by land and boat to emergency personnel only, as the waters are still above the major flood level.
Anti-looting patrols are standard practice post-disaster, Mr Warton said, and regular night patrols are being undertaken to determine if any crocodiles have entered the community.
"We have a town that's inundated by water next to a river that produces and houses some of Australia's largest crocodiles, the risk is fairly self-evident," he said, but added that there had been no recent sightings since two dogs were reportedly taken by crocs last weekend.
Rapid impact assessment teams will be deployed this week to determine the exact nature of the damage.
"Initial surveys show there are a number of houses and buildings and community facilities that have been inundated by water, that's to be expected," Mr Warton said.
"How the river behaves over the next few days... will determine exactly what sort of time frame we put around residents returning to the community."
When asked whether authorities were concerned that another monsoon could set back recovery operations at Daly River, Mr Warton said: "It's very difficult to predict; what we can say is all government agencies and emergency services have their eye on the ball and are very much focused on returning evacuees, and returning this community over time to its original state."
