Thousands of Victorians are isolated by floodwaters that will continue to threaten towns in the north and northwest for up to 10 more days.
More than 1,000 residents at Kerang ignored evacuation alerts and stayed and are now isolated by floodwaters, with a levee built this week keeping water from the Loddon River away from their homes.
The worst floods in recorded history in the region include a massive, moving inland sea threatening small towns from Kerang to Swan Hill and further west near Dimboola and involve the Wimmera, Avoca and Loddon rivers.
There have been more than 150 rescues - half from cars - due to people ignoring advice not to enter floodwaters.
"We're seeing unprecedented flows in northern parts of our state, we still have a very wide and expansive span of water that is not necessarily going to stick to its natural courses," State Emergency Service (SES) deputy director of operations Tim Wiebusch told reporters on Thursday.
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"Water levels are likely to remain at this high level at the top end of the state for quite some time, so we are likely to see this flood emergency continue for at least another seven to 10 days. "This flood event is still far from over.
We are now likely to see further impacts, and in the next 24 hours in particular in the towns of Brim, Beulah and Jeparit, we're also preparing communities now between Kerang and Swan Hill." Public meetings were due to be held in affected towns on Thursday night.
The waters have peaked in flooded towns, including Kerang and Dimboola, but hastily built levees are still being placed under massive pressure with unprecedented high water volumes set to pass through the towns for days.
Thousands of homes remain under threat, roads remain closed and weaknesses in the levee at the electric power station in Kerang have been identified and are being monitored.
Mr Wiebusch warned landowners that had been building their own levees to redirect floodwater without consulting authorities that they could be legally liable for any damage that caused.
"Our strong advice is that it is not appropriate, there needs to be appropriate consultation both with local government and the catchment management authorities and within emergency services in these times," he said.
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu said while a massive clean-up job loomed it was important to also learn from the flood as it was a new phenomenon after a long drought.
"It is important to record this and to map it, so the next generation has an understanding of what does work and how they can protect their towns," Mr Baillieu said.
Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said a bipartisan review should be held to investigate whether the response to the state's floods could have been handled better.
