The flattest place in the Southern Hemisphere is turning into a vast inland sea as floodwater from two major river systems and months of rain transform the landscape.
The inundation is also transforming how Hay Plains residents go about their lives in south-west NSW.
Ali McLean said about 75 per cent of her property, which sits on the Lachlan River, was under water.
"We are almost the drainage point for the whole of NSW," she said.
"To see that covered in water, it does look like an inland sea."
Third-generation Alma Station grazier Will Morphett said watercourses were slowly combining at his property neat Booligal.
"It's created a sheet of water which runs from Booligal basically to Ivanhoe, which is over 100 kilometres," he said.
School teacher Sarah Houston, who lives at Budgewah Station, said she had come across pelicans in places where there should have been sheep.
She lives on a property 25 kilometres west of Hay on the Murrumbidgee River that has been in her husband's family 150 years.
Families split apart
Ms Houston recently became an internet sensation when a video of her getting bogged while trying to drive into work in her four-wheel-drive went viral.
"My husband happened to be going up the road with the tractor, so he hooked the chain on and I got a lift to town," she said.
She said the lack of access was the region's biggest challenge.
"We have no reliable access to and from Booligal," she said.
"We have no access through our properties."
Mr Morphett said running a farming business had become a logistical nightmare due to the inability to easily move across the countryside.
"As an operation we've had to pretty much shut down and we're just kind of in limp mode at the moment, just doing the bare essential tasks," he said.
Ms McLean said she had temporarily moved into Hay during the week, where she worked for the council.
She said coming and going from her home had been a challenge.
"We're lucky Hay hasn't been inundated at this point, so we do have access to a town with all of the facilities," she said.
Woorundura resident Emily Turner, who is 37 weeks pregnant and lives with her husband and young son just over 20 kilometres out of Booligal, said she had moved to her parents' house at Yenda, more than two hours away.
"For safety reasons, I had to leave," she said.
"If there was a medical emergency I couldn't get myself out, and quite often I can't contact my husband to come and get me because of mobile phone reception."
Impacts to be felt for years
Residents of the Hay Plains know the water won't be disappearing anytime soon.
"It's been nearly five weeks now that we've had that inundation happening on top of just extraordinary rainfall events," Ms McLean said.
"We've had records at our place since 1890 and October was the wettest month on record."
Primary production accounts for about 30 per cent of the economic activity within the Hay Shire, which takes in Booligal.
Mr Morphett said he had to get sheep moved to higher ground by helicopter.
"We've got a couple of mobs of sheep that have become isolated on islands," he said.
"When we saw the releases which were coming out of Wyangala last week, we thought 'no, we need to get these sheep moved because they are at risk of perishing on that island'."
Ms Turner said the situation was taking a toll, especially on families that had been separated.
"He [my husband] is dealing with really sick livestock everyday and coming home exhausted and he needs somebody to give him a hot meal and just be there for him and that's not happening at the moment," she said
Ms McLean, who is an economic development officer for the council, said the flood's impacts would be felt for years to come.
Ms Turner said there had been an immense sense of community.
"Everyone's just caring for each other in ways that I never have dreamt of," she said.
