Those in Shepparton, Orrvale, Murchinson and Mooroopna have been told it is too late to leave.

Heavy downpours in Victoria are expected to impact towns along the Murray River, including in Moama across the border in NSW from mid-week. People in tourist and caravan parks at Moama have been asked to prepare to leave.

The wet weather has, of course, also led to a host of cancelled events and festivals. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that one of those was Strawberry Fields, described as ‘four days of live music, large-scale art, workshops and wild river swimming’ held annually on the Murray River in Tocumwal, on the Victoria-NSW border.

The bush bash was scheduled for later this month but, after watching flood levels on the Murray River rise, organisers made the call to cancel the event at the ‘11th hour’.

In many regions, bushfires and Covid have already played havoc with the events schedule … and the third La Nina weather event in a row is making relying on an event actually going ahead a risky business.

And that is likely to be reflected in rising insurance premiums.

An Insurance Council of Australia spokesperson told the SMH that the market for public liability insurance, which covers live music events had tightened over the past two years.

“There is no one silver bullet to fix these issues and solutions, where they exist, require a concerted effort between insurers, business, and government,” they said.

Stephen Wade, who is chairman of the Australian Live Music Business Council, said the pressure on organisers to bear the burden of weather-related cancellations has become too high.

“It’s a unique time for us where these weather patterns consistently continue to throw havoc at our industry,” Mr Wade told the SMH. “There are events that have 30,000 attendees, and the people promoting these shows are literally in the lap of the gods leading up to the shows, hoping that they’re not going to be absolutely smashed with weather.”

Like event organisers, tourism operators on Australia’s east coast have also been spending many, many anxious hours staring at the forecasts with their fingers crossed.

Harry Fraser, a pilot for hot air balloon operator Geelong Ballooning, told the Guardian newspaper that the rain meant balloons were unable to take off.

“The areas we use to take off and land have been under water and it’s hard finding a dry enough area to inflate the balloons and fly them,” he said. “Access is also an issue due to the flooding … this sort of downpour just puts everything under water.”

Tristan Harley from Emu Trekkers, a not-for-profit organisation offering hiking tours around NSW, told the Guardian that, before the pandemic and bushfires, the company was running five hikes a week on average … now, they’re running about one a month.

“We now have to work on plan B or plan C – there is always some element of a trail that has been impacted, changing the experience,” he told the Guardian. “It means our rebound after the pandemic has been difficult … there is so much uncertainty about how the weather will affect things going forward.”

• How has the weather affected your travel plans? Comment below