Australia's Flood Situation Worsens

Australia's flood crisis went from bad to worse Saturday with a giant "inland sea" threatening more communities in the southeast, as officials continued the grim search for bodies in worst-hit Queensland.

Sandbagging is underway in some villages in Victoria, where weeks of floods have affected as much as one-third of the state, with swollen rivers overflowing in 75 towns and flooding some 1,770 properties.

"We know that this is the most significant flooding in the north west of Victoria since records began... about 130 years ago," a spokeswoman for the State Emergency Service told reporters.

"We are still on alert for towns in the north of the state."

Floodwaters which national broadcaster ABC described as a moving "inland sea" covering an area 90 kilometres (56 miles) long and 40 kilometres wide, were threatening towns around Swan Hill, les than 200 miles northwest of Melbourne.  The forming "inland sea" could get bigger.

"In the actual Swan Hill township itself, we are very confident that the levee system around the town is built to a very high grade and will protect the township," Mayor Greg Cruickshank told ABC radio.

But rural and outlying areas "will have significant amount of inundation through them," he said.

While thousands of people around the state have been urged to evacuate, emergency services warned that those people who choose to remain on their properties in the rural areas could be stranded by the floods.

Floods Ravage Queensland, Australia

Australia has endured its wettest spring on record, causing six river systems in tropical Queensland to flood, as soaring temperatures in the states of Victoria and South Australia sparked warnings of devastating bushfires.

The heavy rain has flooded coal mines and hit farming hard, with many roads still impassable, and prompted warnings of the dangers of crocodiles and snakes in flooded homes.

The inland sea that stretches across Queensland is dotted with the roofs of flooded homes, islands of dry ground crowded with stranded livestock and small boats ferrying people and emergency supplies.

On Saturday, coastal areas were preparing for the worst. Evacuations were under way in the town of Rockhampton where the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest river systems, was expected to flood sometime that day.

Also closed was the town's airport and warnings say the flood may go as high as 30 feet.

As the northeast struggled to recover, a new storm was brewing off the coast of mineral-rich Western Australia.