Update 5: Flooding – Big Rivers
7pm Friday 6 March 2026
An Emergency Declaration has been made covering Katherine, Wugularr (Beswick) and Daly River.
A lot of rain fell in the Katherine region overnight, resulting in rapid rises in both the Waterhouse and Katherine Rivers.
Emergency SMS alerts have been sent out to residents in these areas.
People in these areas need to take action now.
Residents at Wugularr are being relocated to the top camp.
People in low-lying areas along the Katherine River between Nitmiluk and downstream past town need to move to higher ground now.
Flooding - Katherine region
March 2026
A slow-moving tropical low over the Katherine region caused severe flooding affecting Katherine and Wugularr (Beswick).
Palumpa
Palumpa flooding.
Daly River
Daly River flooding.
Travel
Avoid any unnecessary travel. Road conditions can change rapidly, particularly as the weather deteriorates. If you must travel, please check the Road Report NT website before you head out.
If you have to leave and you can’t take your pets, leave them outside if you have a single storey house. Do not tether them. If you have an elevated/two storey house, they are safer inside where they can escape any rising floodwaters.
Don’t be a floodwit – stay out of any kind of floodwaters. Don’t drive, play or swim in flooded crossings, pipes, drains or culverts. The water may have washed out the road or ground surface, there may be obstacles or debris, it could well be contaminated, and crocodiles are an ever-present risk to the waterways across the Big Rivers and Top End regions.
Please, follow all instructions and stay safe out there.
Stay tuned in to ABC for updates and to follow SecureNT for all the latest alerts and warnings.
Power and Water
Severe weather can disrupt essential services.
We cannot restore power and water services until we can access our infrastructure.
Residents in areas facing severe weather should prepare for 72 hours without power or water.
Residents who rely on life-support equipment should be prepared to enact their emergency back-up plan, should power or water outages occur.
If you have a prepayment power meter, keep topping up in case there is a Telstra outage.
If you have a token power meter, please ensure you have enough tokens to see you through a few days, in case flooding occurs.
Stay away from damaged Power and Water infrastructure. It is dangerous.
Stay away from pooling water and floodwaters as there is a risk of wastewater overflows.
If you see damaged infrastructure, call Power and Water on 1800 245 092.