© Fiona Morrison Evacuees from the Daly River region at the Batchelor College in Wooliana
Authorities estimate nearly every resident of the town of Daly River, located 200km south of Darwin and named after the creek that runs through its centre, had been moved by boat to a school at nearby Woolianna.
The river is expected to remain above 14m for a week. The Northern Territory Emergency Services director, Peter Davies, said buses had started moving people from the school.
"From there, those who don't have anywhere else to go will be taken to Batchelor College," Mr Davies said yesterday.
"We offered people the opportunity to evacuate on Saturday and they said no. But this morning, when the same offer went up, pretty much the whole community wanted to leave."
Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said 355mm of rain fell from Thursday to Sunday morning at nearby Mount Nancar.
But just 2mm was recorded yesterday, providing psychological relief for locals -- despite the river height nearing 15m last night.
Peter Hollowood and his wife Pat, who run the Daly River Nature Park, were among the few who decided against evacuating. "We're hoping it's reaching its peak now but there's no way of really telling," Mr Hollowood said.
"Our boats are all primed and ready to go if we need to bail out, but I don't think we will."
He said water was already underneath his house, built 30cm above the ground. "We have to leave from the back of the house because of the crocodile risk out the front where the river is," Mr Hollowood said. "They know their normal prey, wallabies and such, are trapped on small islands, so they go hunting."
After their decision to stay, the couple had spent "a fairly sleepless sort of night".
Mr Davies said there had been several reports of crocodiles being seen in the town.
"What I understand is that pretty much everybody in the community is being evacuated.
"It is voluntary and there's no threat to life, but I have to say conditions there won't be very pleasant now, with inundation down most of the roads and in some of the houses."
In a separate incident, a teenage boy is missing after his brothers watched him being attacked by a crocodile on an island off Arnhem Land.
Northern Territory police say the 14-year-old boy was playing in a creek on Milingimbi Island, about 400km east of Darwin and just off the coast of Arnhem Land, when a crocodile attacked him yesterday morning.
"Police received a report . . . that the boy was playing in a creek with his brothers when he was taken by a crocodile," a police spokeswoman said.
"Members of the Milingimbi community began searching the creek and surrounding area for the boy, but as yet there has been no sign of him."
A team of investigators from the Territory Response Section flew to the community from Darwin yesterday to lead the search for the boy, who has not been seen since the attack.
Milingimbi is one of the largest islands in the Crocodile Island group.
The attack came days after residents of the Top End were urged to stay out of waterways after torrential rains and wild winds caused flooding.
Crocodile catcher Tommy Nichols told the NT News there was an extreme risk of crocs moving closer to populated areas.
"It poses a high danger for people," he said.
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