A senior leader of an Aboriginal community under threat from severe flooding says more should have been done to help the community prepare and he had to privately source sand for bagging to protect the area.
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The Cummeragunja Reserve is situated along the Murray River in NSW on the border with Victoria, near Echuca.
The Murray is expected to start peaking on Wednesday, with evacuation orders in place in nearby towns including Echuca.
CEO of Cummeragunja Land Council Leon Atkinson said he thought authorities should have helped residents prepare but instead he had to source a ten-metre truck full of sand.
"I think if we don't paddle our own canoe here, we would have probably got left behind," he told AAP.
Mr Atkinson was eventually able to access 1000 bags of sand from the SES in Moama.
On Monday members of NSW police doorknocked people in the community and told them to leave due to the flood warning but many had returned by Tuesday, when the official evacuation order was issued.
Mr Atkinson said there was no opportunity for a community meeting where residents could have asked questions.
"We needed to know that the SES was going to be there for us," he said.
"I'd have rather them come and sat with us and said okay this is what's expected in an evacuation, what form of protection support do you need from us?
"They never done it, never had none of those discussions."
The former Cummeragunja mission was the site of a walk-off in 1939 when 200 Aboriginal people protested their treatment and conditions they were forced to live in.
The historical school and functioning medical centre located near the river are at greatest risk of flooding.
"We haven't got a budget to be able to fix water damage and repair it," Mr Atkinson said.
"We can't save the homes if anything happens."
A NSW SES spokesperson said it had been working with the Cummeragunja community since the flood threat was identified.
They said they worked with NSW Police, NSW Health and the Murray River Council to ensure vulnerable community members evacuated and were kept up to date with the latest information.
"We are continuing to work with this community throughout the week and are doing supply drops to isolated communities," the spokesperson said in a statement.
They said the SES was aware some community members chose not to evacuate and more than 120,000 sandbags had been provided to nearby Moama by Monday.
Australian Associated Press
