The Latest Breaking News from Steph Cooke

Spills from Wyangala Dam peaked at 230,000 megalitres a day and elsewhere thousands have been forced to leave their homes as flash flooding sweeps large parts of western NSW.

Storms are forecast across multiple parts of the country as a humid air mass tracks north east, heightening the flood risk across soaked river catchments.

Residents across NSW are being warned thunderstorms forecast for Sunday could dump up to 150 millimetres of rain and cause further riverine and flash flooding.

Emergency crews in Australia's most populous state New South Wales were evacuating people and livestock and sandbagging towns on Saturday ahead of an expected peak in floodwaters, with one river forecast to hit a 70-year high water mark.

The Lachlan River in Forbes is expected to exceed 10.8 metres by Friday night – a level not reached since 1952

A "critical producer" flood-recovery program is under fire for being open to Sydney councils such as Parramatta, Ryde, and Canterbury Bankstown — but not rural shires.

“We are […] sandbagging the state”, New South Wales Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke declared on Saturday. And so we endure the third La Niña season with this waiting-for-the-next-disaster attitude.

Drenched northern NSW is in for a brief reprieve from the punishing rain as Premier Dominic Perrottet visits waterlogged communities in the Riverina.

Hydrologist says flood levels similar to last year but this time the water has nowhere to go, prolonging the disaster

With new weather systems closing in on NSW, residents across the state are being warned rain and floods pose massive risks to lives and homes.

Meanwhile Lismore & Northern NSW is set for major flooding.