It’s been a tough few days for some towns in Victoria’s Gippsland region with flooding inundating homes and forcing farmers to move their livestock. The Macalister River broke its banks in Newry and nearby settlements – one farmer said hay bales were “heading down the river like loaves of bread”. And this morning, things are looking better there, but parts of nearby Sale and further east in Bairnsdale are under evacuation warnings. Some locals reckon the worst flooding could have been prevented if authorities had better managed releases from the region’s water catchments. And north of there in Wangaratta, residents close to the Ovens River have been told to hunker down after the area copped 150mm of rain. Cold conditions are on the cards for significant parts of the state today and over the weekend…