The man who saved Warracknabeal

There are some who shout for help, and there are others who just up and organise it themselves. In Victoria's Warracknabeal:

Richard Wilken personally organised a 6km levee that kept floodwaters from swamping homes throughout the town yesterday.

He provided the equipment and co-ordinated dozens of locals who toiled for three days, fending off swarms of mosquitoes as they built the 1m levee with bulldozers and shovels.

Yarriamback Creek peaked about 10.45am but the levee and 55,000 sandbags kept the water away from 170 homes under threat.

Alan Tickner said his house would be underwater if it wasn't for the levee.

"If it wasn't for Richie Wilken, I'd hate to think what position the town would be in," he said.

"None of this would have been done if it wasn't for him. He's saving the town."

A very country kind of thing.