The homes along Goulburn Rd were swamped by floodwaters from the overflowing Murray River, despite heroic efforts from residents and people across the community to save them.
Dozens of people helped lay hundreds of sandbags around the homes, but after holding the water at bay for days, they eventually gave way.
Robyn McCluskey lives in one of the now inundated homes.
“Everything looked like it was right. We found out that crews had contained a wall that they were worried about with the sandbags that were there,” Ms McCluskey said.
“Everything looked calm, they thought they were going to be fine.
“Later my son got a call to say that the bank on the west side of the block of six homes had given way and broken down, just with the constant flow of the water and the current.
“When that happened, water just went everywhere.
“People ran around and did the best they could... They were trying to save whatever they could, but in the end they said they just had to go.
“They had been working around the clock for days to keep water out of the houses, but that was impossible.”
Ms McCluskey said her home had been dry inside on Tuesday, but after the wall collapsed, she said there was now an inch of water through it.
Massive efforts had been made to try to protect the homes, with dozens of people on Monday and Tuesday donating hundreds of sandbags and helping to reinforce walls around the properties.
Despite everything that has happened, Ms McCluskey said there was one particular emotion that stood out to her.
“To be honest, I am relieved to see my family and everyone out of there, they have just worked too hard,” she said.
“I am relieved my family and friends are safe. I feel better than I have the past two days worrying about them.
“Knowing these boys, they keep fighting as long as they have to. They are killing themselves, it is not worth it.”
With floodwaters overcoming the almighty efforts to save the homes, the next step was removing the more than a dozen pumps that had been donated.
Even before the water levels had receded clean-up efforts were underway, with people helping remove as much floating rubbish as possible.
Ms McCluskey said she hoped the community would help not just her, but everyone who had been impacted by floodwaters with the clean-up.
“I’m sure all the community will get together and come and work to get it all back together again,” she said.
“It’s not just us up there. We have all these people over there who are affected, we have people who were affected when the Campaspe came through.”
Wendy is one of Robyn’s friends, and she said the community response had been sensational.
“There is a beautiful Echuca and Moama community,” Wendy said.
“Pizza restaurants have delivered food, people have randomly brought snacks and food just to help. The bakery has brought down food at the end of the day.
“The random acts of kindness have been fantastic.”
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