A boy has died after the car he was travelling in was swept away by floodwaters in central-western New South Wales.
The five-year-old, along with four of his family members, were in a Toyota Hilux travelling along McGrane Way near Tullamore at about 8pm on Friday when they became trapped after trying to cross a flooded creek bed.
Emergency services were called to the area just before 11pm, where they rescued two children — aged one and three — and their parents, who were found clinging to trees.
The boy was unaccounted-for until Saturday when his body was located by police divers in the submerged car at about 3:20pm.
"Four occupants of the Hilux, a 37-year-old man, a 28-year-old woman, along with a young boy and girl, got out and were able to cling to trees," NSW Police said.
"However, a five-year-old boy became trapped in the car before it submerged."
Chief Inspector David Maher, Central West Police District said the parents had been able to remove the car restraints from the younger children and pull them out, but weren't able to free the older boy.
The two male occupants of a second vehicle who also became trapped at the same location about three hours later, managed to swim to safety and raise the alarm. They were uninjured.
The child's mother, father and two siblings were taken by ambulance to Dubbo Base Hospital "in a state of shock".
"The family were very distraught in relation to the incident," Chief Inspector Maher said.
"The family are Sydney residents but they do have a property in Tullamore. Tullamore is a very small community, very close-knit and it's had a major impact on the whole community.
Police believe they had travelled along the road earlier in the morning to Dubbo and were returning along the same road to their property.
Chief Inspector Maher said there will be an investigation into the circumstances of the incident.
Local farmer and Rural Fire Service (RFS) member Fiona Aveyard was one of the first on the scene last night after the alarm was raised.
"It was a miracle they even got a signal to call for help," she said.
"We arrived in the dark in water that was backed up a couple of hundred metres from the crossing. The water at the low-level crossing was up about a metre-and-a-half.
"They [the family members] were downstream in the creek clinging to trees — a mother, a father and two young children.
"If that second vehicle hadn't come across, there's no way we'd have that family here this morning. They couldn't have clung to those trees with children all night."
Ms Aveyard said in the past month emergency services had pulled about a dozen vehicles from the crossing where the cars were swept away.
Also among the first responders was RFS Deputy Captain Greg Smith.
He said they were confronted by a very dangerous situation, made worse by having to find a boat.
"There was 1.5 to 1.6 metres of water over the causeway flowing very fast.
"There was various people in trees, you could hear them yelling out and we didn't have a boat out there at that stage.
"There was a guy in town here, a local had a boat and took it out. He and one of the SES guys went into the water and down the creek, and made a couple of rescues and bought the people back."
He urged people to pay attention to the warnings not to drive through floodwaters.
"People drive around road closed signs and this sort of thing happens, it's an absolute tragedy. It shouldn't have happened."
SES Assistant Commissioner Sean Kearns said it was an "extremely wet time across the state".
"Most river systems in western NSW are in some sort of flood, so we are warning the community to take heed when they travel," he said.
Tullamore is about 90 kilometres north-west of Parkes.
Across NSW, there are 19 flood warnings in place, and the State Emergency Service [SES] has conducted five flood rescues overnight.
The area of most concern is around Gunnedah in the state's north-east.
SES volunteers door-knocked some residents homes warning them to be on alert, and several homes were inundated due to a major flood peak this morning.
SES spokesman Craig Ronan said it's hoped the river levels will drop Saturday.
"The peak will stay there for a number of hours because of the water being released from the dam," he said.
"But I notice the dam is decreasing their releases today — hopefully that will let the river drop and obviously the water will go on downstream to places like Boggabri, Wee Waa and Narrabri."
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Grace Legge said the catchment is saturated and the peak from the Peel River and outflows from Keepit Dam are combining.
"It will affect those low-lying areas — anyone near the river systems can be definitely impacted with water over the roads and crossings as well so as always 'if it's flooded, forget it'," she said.
The Namoi River passed the major flood level on Friday night after reaching a higher peak last weekend, which inundated at least four properties.
The SES said the river could reach 8.30 metres, which might impact Gunnedah Airport.
