Sydney Harbour turns brown as authorities warn against swimming after floods

Heavy rainfall can cause untreated sewage containing viruses and bacteria to flow into waterways posing health risks to swimmers

Pollution washed into Sydney’s beaches and waterways could linger for days, with state authorities urging swimmers to exercise caution after the flood disaster.

Sydney Harbour turned brown as a result of storm water carrying soil and debris, and algal blooms have appeared on the usually pristine sands of Hyams beach in the Jervis Bay region.

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Australia news live updates: Palaszczuk says too late for emergency declaration in Qld; Rio Tinto ditching Russia; 21 Covid deaths

Palaszczuk rejects Morrison’s move to declare national emergency in Queensland, where flood costs are ‘well into the billions’; Rio Tinto will terminate all contracts with Russian businesses; nation records at least 21 Covid deaths amid concerns over Omicron subvariant. Follow all the updates live

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is being questioned about his promises to keep the cost of living down as he chats to ABC News Breakfast:

Well, we have been making policies that have been driving down the cost of living, for example, around electricity prices which are down by 8% in the last two years.

They doubled under our political opponents, but what I was referring to last night is the international events in the Ukraine have seen a spike in oil prices, and that is flowing through with some people paying more than $2 a litre.

This high and increasing burden of skin cancer emphasises the need for continued investment in skin cancer education and prevention.

We know what needs to be done. Now is the time to do it so that one day Australia is no longer considered the skin cancer capital of the world.

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Coalition considering extending extra payments to flood victims in northern NSW after backlash

Scott Morrison continues to defend flood response as Queensland premier says offer to declare a national emergency in the state’s south-east is ‘too late’

Scott Morrison is “looking at” extending eligibility for extra payments to more flood victims on the New South Wales north coast, in response to anger over the decision to leave some of the hardest-hit disaster areas out.

The prime minister made the comments in Brisbane where he was planning to declare an emergency two weeks after major floods that killed 13 people and damaged thousand of homes and businesses in the south-east.

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Scott Morrison says defence force ‘not available on a moment’s notice’ to respond to disaster – as it happened

Lismore residents protest Scott Morrison’s visit as PM says disasters mean Australia ‘getting hard to live in’; NSW flood death toll rises to nine after man’s body found in western Sydney; second Japanese encephalitis death recorded as outbreak spreads to South Australia; Indigenous teenager shot by NT police fighting for life; at least 34 Covid-related deaths nationwide. This blog is now closed

The latest figures from WaterNSW will give some comfort to those in the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain, where flood levels are approaching 1978 heights in places.

As of 5am Wednesday, the spill rate over the Warragamba Dam wall is 215 gigalitres a day, or about half the peak rate reached yesterday.

The good news is that we have seen the river is falling there. The plan today is that the team will be reviewing what’s happening.

They’re making sure it’s safe to return, and we are hoping during the day we might be able to issue that people can return, with caution … We just need to make sure – we need to check things like electricity, sewerage and the like to make sure it’s safe to return.

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Scott Morrison says defence force ‘not available on a moment’s notice’ to respond to floods disaster

Prime minister visits Lismore as government declared national emergency to release more resources to help

Scott Morrison was met with a fiery reception in flood-devastated Lismore, as he defended the speed of his government’s response to the disaster, saying the ADF is “not available on a moment’s notice”.

Ahead of Morrison’s arrival in Lismore, the federal government declared a national emergency around the floods, giving the Commonwealth greater power to send in defence force assets and skirt around administrative “red tape” to get financial support out quicker.

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Thousands of dugong and turtle deaths to follow Queensland floods, experts predict

Loss of coastal seagrass meadows due to sediment-laden flood water likely to cause mass starvation in aquatic wildlife

Hundreds of dugongs and thousands of turtles will likely starve to death in coming months after flood waters smothered Queensland’s seagrass meadows with sediment.

Col Limpus, the chief scientist for wildlife and threatened species in Queensland’s environmental department, is so familiar with the pattern of death that follows big floods he can provide a timeline of what is in store.

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Sydney floods: two found dead, roads inundated, homes and suburbs across the city swamped

Streets become rivers amid shocking deluge as Manly Dam spills and Roseville bridge flooded, with evacuation orders covering more than a dozen suburbs

Tens of thousands of Sydney residents have been forced from their homes as floods unleashed carnage across Australia’s largest city and claimed the lives of a mother and son.

Australia’s death toll from the east coast floods rose to 21 on Tuesday as a massive stretch of the New South Wales coast endured dangerous winds and heavy rains, causing landslides and wild surf conditions as the second east coast low in a week moved in.

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Australia news live updates: residents in Sydney’s south-west ordered to evacuate; Queensland flood death toll hits 13

Thousands of people in Sydney’s south and south-west have been told to leave as flood warnings are in place for vast swathes of NSW, as Dominic Perrottet admits ‘better planning’ is required for future flood mitigation. Follow all the day’s news

Federal opposition frontbencher Tanya Plibersek has jumped on the radio right after the premier to talk about Labor’s proposed $77m package to improve consent education at school. (Hopefully with something better than that bizarre milkshake video from last year.)

Well, the national curriculum has just been strengthened in this area to say that all students should learn about respectful relationships while they’re at school ... This is making sure that we change the objective in the curriculum into real change in every classroom in Australia.

... If we can change that when they are young, we can change these shocking statistics across Australia where we see one in five Australian women experiencing sexual assault in her lifetime, one in three experiencing domestic violence.

Premier, can you guarantee people who lost their homes to these floods, that they will be able to rebuild where they are, or will some be forced to move to less flood-prone areas?

Well, Patricia, I’ll work through that because I mean, obviously this was an unpredicted, freak catastrophe. I mean, there’s a 14 and a half metre flood in Lismore!

But ultimately, in these times, we need to have frank assessments of the circumstances.

Again, I don’t mean to be rude, but you say “freak” – is it really a “freak” if we’re being told we’re going to have more of these events more frequently?

Should we be really describing it that way when we know that these events are going to be with us more often?

We’ve never seen a 14 and a half metre flood in Lismore, I’m sure you have that. There’s no doubt that we are seeing more of these events and we need to make sure that as we rebuild, we do so in such a way that ensures that we protect people’s lives and we have communities built in a way where we mitigate flood risk or fire risk.

... So as we get to that rebuilding phase, we’ll certainly look at better planning and more flood mitigation and fire mitigation as we move through.

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Once in 1,000 year floods yet nobody is talking about climate change (everyone is talking about it but the government) | First Dog on the Moon

The floods are not unlike the incredible and unprecedented fires three years ago

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Severe weather warning extended to cover much of eastern NSW, with heavy rain and flash flooding forecast

A second east coast low is expected to form overnight, bringing heavy rain and damaging winds

A second east coast low off New South Wales is forecast to form overnight into Tuesday, bringing heavy rain but also stirring stronger winds than a similar system last week.

The Bureau of Meteorology has expanded its warning zone for heavy falls and damaging winds to cover an area from Coffs Harbour almost all the way south to the Victorian border.

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NSW flood cleanup continues as south-east Queensland again lashed by thunderstorms

Severe rainfall that may lead to flash flooding ‘likely’ in Queensland, while Hawkesbury-Nepean river in NSW set to surpass last week’s flood level

South-east Queensland has again been lashed with rainfall and thunderstorms, while areas around Sydney and Newcastle faced the renewed risk of flooding as the cleanup continued.

Destructive winds and giant hail were possible as a “very dangerous storm” near Beaudesert in Queensland moved east on Sunday afternoon. Severe thunderstorms were also detected near Boonah, north-west of Noosa Heads, with severe rainfall that may lead to flash flooding “likely”.

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‘Next level destruction’: NSW residents detail the moments floods devastated their homes

Residents of townships around Lismore and Mullumbimby recall destructive landslides, rising flood waters and raging torrents

The towns of the New South Wales northern rivers are used to floods – they are part of the region’s history and a product of its geography. But this time was different. The speed at which flood waters rose, the sheer volume of water and the scale of the damage caught many by surprise.

Politicians are calling these floods a once-in-a-100, or even a once-in-a-1,000-year event, but in reality these catastrophic weather events are becoming more intense and more frequent.

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‘Heartbreaking’: Australia’s east coast reels from worst floods in living memory

Queensland and NSW bear the brunt of catastrophic weather conditions that have claimed 16 lives

When Jenni Metcalfe returned to her Brisbane home to survey the damage as the nearby river peaked, water had already risen a metre up the back wall. There was nothing she could do. “I sat in the gutter and watched it and cried,” she said.

The east coast of Australia has been battered by more than a week of torrential rain, as communities begin to survey the wreckage of fatal flash flooding that has left townships looking like war zones.

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Australia news updates live: fresh flood warnings for NSW as more rain due, Qld schools stay shut

Hundreds of thousands of NSW residents are still under evacuation warnings or orders as Hawkesbury-Nepean region remains a major concern; Victoria records 26 Covid deaths, NSW records two. Follow all the day’s news

Resilience NSW commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has told ABC radio that flooding across the state was worst than predicted:

Unprecedented levels [of flooding] experienced up in northern NSW, flood levels that came in well above what was forecasted … And at the same time we’ve still got serious flooding concerns in Hawkesbury and Nepean ...

We’ve also formed up a significant taskforce, comprising of firefighters … the Australian defence force. So working shoulder to shoulder with business owners, with property owners, homeowners ...

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Fears for Indigenous community of NSW island as anger rises about government’s flood response

Cabbage Tree Island school principal worried students won’t be able to return for months after

An Indigenous community from Cabbage Tree Island in the New South Wales northern rivers region fears they have lost everything in the floods.

Residents from all 23 households were forced to flee as water inundated the island, which is off Ballina and has been an Indigenous reserve since 1893.

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NSW floods: Sydney and Illawarra dodge east coast low after 500,000 people faced evacuation across state

Newcastle and Hunter region now in firing line and subject to severe weather warnings as clean-up begins further north

Sydney and the Illawarra region of New South Wales have avoided the worst effects of the devastating east coast low that instead eased and shifted west over Newcastle and the Hunter region.

Newcastle remains under a severe weather warning with falls of 60 to 100mm possible over six hours and the associated risk of flash flooding.

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NSW flood: Sydney residents in west and north-west evacuate as Warragamba Dam spills

Residents in Camden, Chipping Norton, Georges Hall, Lansvale, Milperra, Moorebank, Warwick Farm and other suburbs told to evacuate with thousands more preparing to leave

New South Wales authorities have warned communities at risk of major flooding in the Sydney region to evacuate or prepare to evacuate as the Hawkesbury, Nepean and Georges rivers continue to rise.

Warragamba Dam, Sydney’s main reservoir, was spilling at a rate in excess of 70 gigalitres a day on Wednesday after torrential rainfall over its catchment exceeded earlier predictions, according to a NSW government official.

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East coast low menaces Sydney and vast stretch of NSW coast with ‘life-threatening’ flash flooding forecast

Severe weather warning issued for damaging winds and rain for region stretching from near Newcastle to almost the Victorian border

The “rain bomb” that soaked Brisbane and triggered record floods in northern New South Wales will develop into an east coast low and dump as much as 150mm of rain on Sydney with “life-threatening” risks on Wednesday.

The Bureau of Meteorology has pared back its earlier forecast for the daily rain total from as much as 150mm to 200mm to 100mm to 150mm, but reissued its severe weather warning for damaging winds and torrential rainfall for a coastal region stretching from near Newcastle down to almost the Victorian border.

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Ballina flood: residents of NSW coastal town face tense night as flood peak expected to coincide with high tide

Flood waters from the Richmond River catchment are expected to reach Ballina on Tuesday night

Residents of the north coast town of Ballina are preparing for a tense night as floodwaters from two saturated catchments converge on the town, following a week of heavy rainfall that has caused devastating flooding and cost nine lives across southeast Queensland and Northern NSW.

The State Emergency Service issued an evacuation order for the town centre on Tuesday afternoon, directing people there to leave by no later than 7pm.

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