Emergency services were focusing their efforts on Swan Hill, a town 210 miles (340 kilometers) northwest of the Victorian capital of Melbourne, where the Lodden and Murray rivers meet. Floodwaters are expected to peak there midweek when the sea arrives, the State Emergency Service said.

Volunteers have spent the past week piling tens of thousands of sandbags around the community, a town of 10,000 people, Mayor Greg Cruickshank said Monday.

“We’re nearly to the point to where we are as prepared as we can be,” he said. “If there happens to be inundation, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying.” Australia’s deadly flood crisis began with record rains in November that left huge parts of the northeast state of Queensland under water (that left three-quarters of the northeast state of Queensland a disaster area?), killing 30 people, damaging or destroying 30,000 homes and businesses and causing at least 3 billion Australian dollars ($3 billion) in damage to crops and lost coal exports. The state capital and the country’s third-largest city, Brisbane, was swamped for days.

The flood disaster is now moving across southeast Victoria state, where driving rains have forced swollen rivers over their banks.

Ahead of the inland sea, several hundred residents were evacuated Sunday from tiny communities east of Swan Hill, including Pental Island, where about 50 properties were expected to become isolated or inundated. At 55 miles (90 kilometers) long and 25 miles (40 kilometers) wide, the inland sea is 350 square miles (900 square kilometers) larger than the French capital.

On Monday, some residents of the small community of Murrabit West, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east of Swan Hill, were urged to evacuate as water from the Murray began spilling over the levees protecting the township. An emergency service spokeswoman said officials did not yet know how many homes were at risk of being flooded.

Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said in a statement Sunday that the floods will rank as one of the most costly natural disasters in Australian history and its impact on the economy will be felt for years.

The government will announce its first cost estimates on Friday, he said.

Swan and Prime Minister Julia Gillard were in the Queensland capital of Brisbane on Monday for a meeting of Gillard’s business taskforce, which was set up following the Queensland floods to encourage companies to donate to relief efforts.

“We still don’t know what the total damage bill is,” Gillard said. “We’ve got to be very clear here — the federal government is going to step up and do everything we need to do to rebuild Queensland.” The State Emergency Service said Monday that 76 towns in Victoria have been affected by flooding, with 1,770 properties suffering some water damage. Another five to 10 towns are still in the floodwaters’ northern path across flat wheat-growing country.