2021 March floods: Kinchela Creek residents living on their 'own little islands'

Residents at Upper Kinchela Creek are currently surrounded by water that will likely take days to subside.

Carmel and Tony James own a property on Right Bank Road at Upper Kinchela and are using boats to check on neighbours who are also inundated by floodwaters.

"We moved to Upper Kinchela in 2019 and bought this property and moved a house from Queensland down here," Carmel said.

"From November 2019 it has been a labour of love of ours."

Carmel and Tony knew they were purchasing property on a flood plain and followed advice from council to raise their home.

"We followed the recommenced height from council when we lifted the house," Carmel said.

"We've spend the past 12-18 months preparing the property for floods."

Although they were prepared for a flood, Carmel said they didn't expect the water to inundate their property so quickly.

"We weren't expecting it to be lake views like it is now, we're pretty much in the river."

The couple have 23 head of cows that they have moved to a holding area near their home.

"The cows have managed ok, but now with all of the water there isn't going to be any grass for them to eat for weeks."

Carmel said the small community of Upper Kinchela have come together to support one another.

"There has been an enormous amount of support from our neighbours. It has really been a community effort, we've been going out in boats to help lift things up higher and make sure everyone is ok," she said.

Locals in the area have been isolated since Friday.

"We're on our own little island here," Carmel said.

"We've also had a number of unwanted guests. There's been hundreds of spiders, if we had one cent for each spider we've seen, we would be millionaires.

"There's also been snakes come and go in the floodwater."

Carmel said the plan now is to wait for the water to subside and asses the damage when they're able to do so.

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