The day Melbourne residents woke to the Maribyrnong ‘consuming’ their neighbourhoods

Anthony Cook knew the flood was coming, but he didn’t realise just how high the water would get.

The business he runs, the Angler’s Tavern, sits right alongside the Maribyrnong River in the suburb of Maribyrnong.

Among kilometres of walking tracks and parklands, the tavern is usually the kind of place that attracts people because of its river views.

However, yesterday, its location was something to survive.

“I got in early and watched as the water crept up higher and higher. It is almost to the second-floor function centre now,” he said yesterday afternoon.

Staff had time to prepare when the flood warning went out, moving furniture to that second floor.

However, still they were shocked at the intensity of the flood.

“Just watching it consume the building, it is popping windows open, doing all sorts of damage to the venue,” Mr Cook said.

“It is really quite a massive thing to see the force of that river come through. It is quite a staggering thing.”

Usually, Mr Cook said, the business did not have to worry about the river.

“It is a tidal river, so we do see it rise and fall quite substantially, however, it just never breaks its banks until it does and, when it does, it really consumes that neighbourhood,” he said.

This isn’t the first time the tavern has survived a major flood though.

While the original tavern was built in 1850, Mr Cook said, the business still has pictures of the massive flood of 1906 on its walls.

“The first [photo] of Flemington Racecourse it is just a river. You almost can’t see anything and the second one looks like it is the original tavern with just a roof sticking out of the water,” Mr Cook said.

Those floods, he said, were part of the area’s folklore.

When the business is back open, Mr Cook is sure pictures from this flood will be added to the wall.

However, he — like many of the residents in the area — are, for now, still trying to understand what has been lost and how it can be rebuilt.

Maribyrnong has been one of the worst-hit suburbs in these Melbourne floods. Nearby residents have seen their homes inundated, many have been evacuated, with the scale of the damage still not properly known.

A suburb divided by floodwater

Further towards the CBD, the suburb of Kensington also sits along the Maribyrnong River.

However, yesterday this suburb was divided in two as water came up from the river, taking over parks and walking tracks and gushing all the way down Kensington Road.

On the river side of that road, residents were hemmed in by water. They stood on their front steps, with water lapping at their feet and no easy way out.

One man put on a wetsuit and paddled his surfboard down Kensington Road, a couple took to a kayak, and SES crews did welfare checks from a dinghy.

Residents stood with phones in hand, taking photos and videos of boats gliding down their main road, past submerged cars, trees and road signs.

On the other side of the road, though, life went on as normal.

A man went through his afternoon exercise regime at the park, just 50 metres from those trapped on their front steps.

Others walked dogs, picked up their children from school and drank coffees (even in floods, this is still Melbourne).

In this flood, location really mattered.

Tara Glastonbury had a long day yesterday, dealing with the rising water.

From her home in Kensington she took a long route around floodwaters to get to the art studio near the river, where she works.

However, by the time she got to work, the rising water had also arrived.

“Just as I arrived, you could see the water heading into the car park,” Ms Glastonbury said.

She was concerned for the businesses on the ground floor of her studio’s building which would likely have a clean-up ahead.

Back in Kensington, she stood watching as the smelly brown water took over parts of her suburb.

Her description of what she saw?

“Kensington Road turned into the Maribyrnong River basically,” was her simple description.

A river that floods, but not that often

Nicole Kowalczyk is the Maribyrnong officer who works with the Yarra River Keeper Association, which hopes to promote and protect Melbourne’s great rivers.

The Maribyrnong River, she explained, starts all the way up near Mount Macedon and travels for about 160km, eventually making its way through Melbourne’s north-west, before reaching Port Phillip Bay.

Ms Kowalczyk said floods were not new to Melbourne’s second-largest river.

“The last one was in 1993 and there is probably one every 15 years I would say,” she said.

With large gaps between flood events, Ms Kowalczyk said, it was easy for people to forget that the Maribyrnong is a river that does, at times, burst its banks.

To understand this flood though, she said, people needed to look at the river’s catchment areas.

“I think the important thing to understand is the Maribyrnong catchment is currently saturated,” she said.

Ms Kowalczyk said dams along the river were also at capacity and the region had experienced heavier-than-usual rain linked to La Niña weather patterns.

“The ground is essentially saturated, and it is all runoff and it is all making its way into the Maribyrnong and it is a silent giant which is growing because there is nowhere else for the water to go,” she explained.

With more heavy rain forecast across the next six to eight weeks, and its catchments overflowing, Ms Kowalczyk said the Maribyrnong River could remain a flood risk for some time.