It was a fast-moving beast at 10am, and as evening rolled around it had well and truly broken its banks, completely flooding Campbell Park across from Coles, and cutting off half the bridges into town.

But by the morning it was churning sullenly back within the banks.

"To be quite honest, realistically there wasn't a lot of clean up to do," Inverell SES deputy unit commander Joerg Gruenfeld told the Times - after more than 24 hours on his feet.

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"It's more that people took it seriously without panicking about it, that's the takeaway for me".

He said the biggest concern was Macintyre Street, however even then only one building flooded with 10 inches of water - and it was a shed.

"We got lucky. There were three duplex aged care units that had water lapping just near the back doors, but later that afternoon the water had receded and the inside of the properties were not affected," he said.

"With the water rising ... it could have gone either way."

O'Connor Street Bridge, up to Mansfield Street roundabout, had been cut off on Tuesdat, as had Ring Street Bridge.

Water had risen to lap at the sides of McLachlan's Smash Repairs, but in the words of employee Rip, "we were never worried".

Volunteers came on Monday morning to help fill sandbags, as they prepared for flooding in low lying areas of the town.

More than 400 were filled and taken.

See more of the Times' photos and video here.

"A lot of locals who knew they needed bags, filled them themselves. We like to see a community that's enabled," Mr Gruenfeld explained.

Over the course of the day, the Inverell SES were supported by the Tingha SES, Inverell Rural Fire Brigade and Inverell's Volunteer Rescue Association.

"The one thing we did learn last night was that compared to 1991, we were at one location with the markers from the previous flood. The amount of rise we had in the river would normally have put 60 to 80cms of water through their building.

"With the drainage works and mitigation that council did after the '91 floods, the water moved through easily and didn't back up through the CBD.

"We are not saying that there isn't the potential to have a flood, but it was also reassuring that at 4.2m, places that would have been impacted, weren't."

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Apart from a few "rubberneckers", Inverell police's Acting Inspector Cameron Paine commended residents for being "sensible".

"In relation to the floods, Inverell got out of it pretty lightly - it was predicted to reach 4.3ms, and it did, and it's safe to say it reached that point, but it really had no impact on the town except for some small, localised flooding," he said.

Aside from one call out to Coolatai, where a removalist truck decided to attempt crossing a flooded road, "we weren't kept busy responding to emergencies".

More than 200mms fell in some parts of town from Monday, with the river reaching its predicted peak of 4.3m over night Tuesday.

Residents near Iris Street in Moree, on the other hand, were told to evacuate on Tuesday night, as an emergency response centre commenced.

Some Shire roads remain closed, with Inverell Shire Council's Facebook page providing further updates.

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