NT chief minister visits Canberra to discuss flood recovery as parts of Central Australia told to brace for heavy rain

Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro and Treasurer Bill Yan are meeting federal ministers in Canberra today to discuss flood recovery funding and rebuilding efforts after the unprecedented flooding across the Northern Territory.

The pair will meet with federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King to talk about the recovery efforts, with the chief minister flagging that the damage bill could stretch into the tens of millions of dollars.

A request for Australian Defence Force support for the town of Katherine during its recovery phase was approved yesterday, with 50 uniformed ADF troops due to arrive in the town from today.

"They'll be there to assist for the next 10 to 14 days, depending on what is required in that clean-up process," Regional Development, Local Government and Territories Minister Kristy McBain said yesterday.

The NT government has also provided a group of 14 prisoners and four corrections staff to assist Katherine locals in flood recovery efforts.

Last week Katherine endured its worst flood in 28 years, and with the river now below the minor flood level and receding, residents are assessing the damage to their homes and businesses.

Incident controller Shaun Gill today said there were no longer any Katherine residents staying in emergency shelters and operations in the town were starting to move towards "a business-as-usual model". 

"The hospital emergency department is open, the schools have been opened, there's been police and clean-up activities going on in the community as we speak," Commander Gill said.

However, the incident controller noted there were 35 properties in Katherine that remained without power.

Katherine Mayor Joanna Holden said while some residents' lives were already going back to normal, for those whose homes had been badly flooded, the road to recovery would be a lot longer.

"It's going to be weeks and months before their homes are back to what they were previously, before their lives are back to what they were before the floodwaters came," Cr Holden said.

Commander Gill said so far 1,470 properties across Katherine and Darwin, including both residential and commercial buildings, had been assessed for damage by emergency services.

Meanwhile, south-east of Katherine, residents of the remote community of Jilkminggan are set to return home this week after having spent more than a week at an evacuation centre at Mataranka.

Access to the remote community was blocked by flood-damaged roads, but Commander Gill said work was being done to clear the roads. 

"Once the roads are clear, [residents] are ready to go back to the community. We just want to make sure that the shops are good and there's a medical facility there to operate and that the community is also clear to go back to business as usual," Commander Gill said.

The Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) Shenagh Gamble said further south, a flood warning remained in place for the Victoria River catchment, as "upstream water continues to flow down that catchment towards the mouth of the river". 

As of today, 578 people from flood-affected remote communities remain in evacuation shelters in Darwin.

Commander Gill said there had also been 4,083 applications for immediate relief assistance filed by affected NT residents, "totalling to $3.61 million so far".

Daly River residents in limbo as major flooding continues

Meanwhile, Daly River community members remain in limbo, with authorities unsure about when they will be able return to their homes with the river still at a major flood level.

On Friday, flooding at the community, about 220 kilometres south-west of Darwin, exceeded the 1998 record of 16.25 metres — making the current flood the worst on record for the region.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, the river peaked at 16.42m, and is expected to remain at the major flood level this week.

Ms Gamble said it would take a while for river levels to drop in the community, with levels currently appearing "almost steady" despite the water "very slowly receding". 

Commander Gill said police had taken some "drone footage" over the community today and said it showed the community was "completely inundated with water levels up to roof lines of houses". 

"We don't expect to be able to go back to do any formal assessments for at least a week."

This is the second time the Daly River community has been evacuated due to flooding this year, with residents having now been at Foskey Pavilion at the Darwin Showgrounds for eight days.

The incident controller added that police had done "some initial assessments" of Palumpa, which lies 138km south-west of Daly River. 

"There's still water through the community [and] there's been a fair bit of damage to the shops through floodwaters and the like as well," he said.

Heavy rain forecast for parts of Central Australia

The Northern Territory Emergency Service (NTES) has urged residents in parts of Central Australia to prepare for heavy rainfall in coming days, with the tropical low that has been impacting the Top End for the past week now sitting over the south-western NT. 

Ms Gamble said the BOM was forecasting rainfall totals of 50 to 100 millimetres for parts of the south-west, with Yulara having already recorded 76mm in the past 24 hours.

Severe weather warnings have been issued for the region, with the risk of widespread heavy rainfall in the Tanami, Lasseter and Simpson districts.

"Six-hourly rainfalls between 50 to 80 millimetres are likely within this area, and 24-hour rainfalls between 80 and 120 millimetres are also likely," she said.

"It is also possible to get daily rainfall totals of up to 160 millimetres in that severe weather warning area, which in those desert parts of the NT is a very large amount of rainfall."

Ms Gamble said Alice Springs was not expected to receive widespread heavy rain, though it could experience isolated thunderstorms.

"The peak period of risk for Central Australia is really today through to tomorrow," she said.

"But as the tropical low that has been bringing these conditions moves further to the south-east and out of the Northern Territory, by Wednesday those conditions should ease considerably in Central Australia."

BOM monitoring tropical low off Queensland

Ms Gamble said the bureau was also closely monitoring a separate tropical low south of the Solomon Islands in the Coral Sea.

The low is forecast to move west towards the Queensland coast in coming days, before continuing into the Gulf of Carpentaria and onto the NT mainland.

Ms Gamble said there was a high chance of the system developing into a tropical cyclone before its predicted crossing into Queensland later this week.

Commander Gill said although there were no warnings in place at this stage, "as part of normal operations" police and emergency services had started planning for a possible cyclone.

"What that means is communities such as Borroloola, anything that's around that area, we've asked for them to stand up their local emergency committees [and] make sure they have a clear understanding what their roles or responsibilities are with regards to that," he said.

"Plan and prepare is probably the best way to describe where we're at right now."

Both BOM and NTES are encouraging NT residents to stay up to date with the latest weather warnings, with Ms Gamble warning the territory is "still in a very active period" of the wet season.