The man, 44, had to be rescued by police and the SES after coming out of his kayak, becoming stranded in the branches of a willow tree about 10m from the bank.

The Border man had been kayaking with a friend when the incident happened just before 3pm.

Wodonga SES controller Read Hedditch said the man had been “cold and wet” but unharmed after spending about 30 minutes clinging to the tree before being brought back to dry land.

Mr Hedditch said his crew initially thought they might have had to perform a land-based rescue, pitching a rope at the man from the bank and asking him to swim to safety, when the fast-flowing river made it hard for the SES boat to reach him upstream.

But as the rescuers neared the tree, they managed to reverse the boat against the current.

The man was then able to jump from the tree’s branches and onto the front of the vessel.

“He was basically standing on a cluster of branches,” Mr Hedditch said.

“He managed to step across a couple of them to get to us after we got the boat within 2 to 3m of him.”

Mr Hedditch said the water was “quite treacherous” after recent heavy rain.

The man said he was grateful for the efforts of his rescuers.