Victoria, Australia weather: Rain dump on the way, 100mm of rain predicted as flood waters rise

After a single day of sunshine, Australia will again face a huge rain shower from Sunday.

Another low-pressure system and trough will hit the land, causing widespread rain and storms — resulting in even more devastating flooding.

On Saturday morning, Kevin Willis, 71, was named as the first person to die in the Victoria floods, which have also seen thousands of people evacuated.

Now, another 100mm of rain is forecast for the eastern states of Australia in the coming days.

The weather agency says rain and thunderstorms are already developing in South Australia and inland Queensland, and the weather system will bring “much more widespread” rain and “flooding renewed” to the south east from Wednesday.

The flood disaster in Victoria was fatal on Saturday when police confirmed that a man’s body was found in the water in the backyard of a Rochester home. Pictured SES personnel seek flooding in Melbourne’s Maribyrnong

The news is particularly troubling for Victoria as the list of cities facing evacuation orders continues to grow as major flooding is felt across the state and is expected to last up to six weeks.

Mr Willis, the first dead from the floods, was found in the backyard of his High Street home.

“It is my sad duty to confirm that a 71-year-old man has died in the backyard of his Rochester property,” Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said at a news conference on Saturday.

“We will stand behind that family and all the families affected by this, but it makes it clear to all of us that this is serious, this is potentially very, very dangerous…

“Hopefully that sends out a broader message how serious this is and that’s why we’re all working as hard as we can to make sure people are safe.”

Victoria Police released a statement on Saturday saying: “Access to the crime scene was difficult given the surrounding water, but emergency services were able to free the deceased and a woman, who was unharmed but trapped at the address.”

The exact circumstances surrounding his death have yet to be determined.

Hundreds of homes in Rochester were inundated by the flooded Campaspe River, one of dozens of waterways that overflowed and flooded northern Victorian towns.

The river peaked at 115.7 AHD Friday night, which is 300mm higher than the previous record set in January 2011.

Mr Andrews said 466 properties have been flooded with water above the floorboards and a further 500 are currently insulated.

He said 344 roads have also been closed due to flooding.

More than 350 rescue operations have been carried out in the past 24 hours.

Andrews said on Saturday that 3,000 applications had already been received from Victorians for emergency payments.

Bureau of Meteorology chief forecaster Jonathan told the Daily Mail that Australia Tasmania, Victoria and NSW would only be given “a few days’ reprieve.”

He said a weather system that develops “will bring rain and thunderstorms into South Australia and inland Queensland from Tuesday, then spread to the rest of the east coast from Wednesday to Saturday.”

“This will be much more widespread,” he warned.

“So we’re going to see showers all the way from central northern Queensland to Tasmania and especially with this we’re going to see thunderstorms as well.

“So we expect widespread falls that could cause re-flooding in some parts of the Southeast and East.”

Mr How said the heaviest rainfall is forecast for southeastern Queensland and northern NSW.

He said the region will receive between 50 and 100mm of rain, although further south is still vulnerable to heavy local rainfall likely accompanied by thunderstorms.