Hundreds of residents have been evacuated and teachers are being driven to work in fire trucks as the effects of major flooding are felt across central NSW.
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About 250 properties are subject to evacuation or isolation orders in Forbes after the Lachlan River crept up to its major flooding mark on Friday morning.
The orders affect about 550 people in the town of 8000, the SES said.
While water is not expected to enter classrooms, Forbes Public School has been ordered to close.
Norm Haley, from Forbes Community Mens' Shed, said some farmers had meanwhile been isolated for weeks after their driveways were flooded.
"(However) the big worry is what's still up in the heavens that hasn't fallen yet," Mr Haley told AAP.
Teachers at Bedgerabong Public School in the village west of Forbes have been driven to work by Rural Fire Service volunteers for weeks to get them through flooded roads.
"The road surface is absolutely cut up. It's not potholes anymore - it's craters," casual teacher Helen Pitt told AAP.
"The roads have been under water for a long time."
Heavy rain and burst creeks have saturated rural properties surrounding the village for months, with farmers losing crops or unable to sow them.
"There's a bit of fatigue, not so much from the floods but from the rain. We went through years of drought and then the mice plague but this is all part of life on the land," Ms Pitt said.
Dennis Shrimpton, a disaster welfare coordinator for western NSW, said no one in Forbes needed emergency accommodation, with most evacuees staying at family and friends' houses.
"It's a very resilient community, they've been through a lot of events," Mr Shrimpton said.
Elsewhere, the cotton town of Wee Waa is again isolated, with an SES high-clearance truck delivering bread and milk.
The town has been affected by flooding for weeks, with hopes the waters will recede enough overnight to allow a grocery truck to enter, a shop owner told AAP.
People in three areas of the Riverina city of Wagga Wagga remain under evacuation orders issued earlier in the week.
"Fortunately, the Murrumbidgee River peaked on Thursday and we're starting to see the floodwaters decline in those areas," SES spokesman Andrew Edmunds said.
Overnight, the SES received 264 calls for assistance with five being for flood rescues, including of livestock.
The Bureau of Meteorology says renewed flooding is possible for parts of Central West and South West inland rivers from Friday evening.
A trough approaching from the west of NSW has brought rain over the central and southern inland of the state during Thursday with more rainfall forecast for the remainder of Friday.
Flood warnings for renewed flooding from recent rainfall are current for the Belubula, Gwydir and Macquarie Rivers.
The state can expect clear skies and settled weather this weekend but the fortnight ahead will be soggy, with above-median rainfall (greater than 80 per cent chance) on the cards for large parts of the eastern two thirds of Australia.
Significant falls in northern Victoria will affect the Murray River, leading to possible minor flooding in Albury and other NSW towns on the southern border.
Australian Associated Press
