Hundreds of outback residents in two states will enter the new year watching rapidly rising rivers as evacuees in another flooded outback community sleep in defence accommodation.
West Australian authorities expect the Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region to quickly reach moderate flood levels from late Saturday, affecting some of the 1600 people living near the river, including in Fitzroy Crossing.
Meanwhile, about a dozen evacuees from the low-lying outskirts of Menindee, near Broken Hill in NSW, will spend New Year's Eve in hotel accommodation.
The bulging Darling River rose slowly on Saturday but is expected to rapidly rise overnight to break a record height of 10.47 metres set in the far western NSW town in 1976.
About 30 people decided to stay in place, satisfied they had areas that would keep them dry.
It comes after Water NSW on Saturday increased releases through the main weir to 75,000 gigalitres a day.
That volume is enough to fill Sydney Harbour - from the heads to Parramatta - within six days.
Even after Saturday night further river rises are possible, subject to inflow at the weir.
"The Menindee community have endured flooding for the best part of 12 months," SES spokesman Dave Rankine told AAP.
"We want to thank the community - they've been very resilient."
Upstream, Tilpa and Wilcannia continue to deal with major flooding but levels have eased in Louth.
Repeated flooding in all corners of NSW made for the NSW SES's busiest year on record, it said on Saturday.
More than 80,000 requests for assistance had been made since January 1.
In WA, heavy falls from the relatively stagnant ex-tropical Cyclone Ellie were expected to cause moderate flooding in the central Kimberley region from late Saturday.
About 1600 people were affected in communities including Fitzroy Crossing, Noonkanbah and Christmas Creek.
"Water will be fast flowing and levels will rise quickly," the Department of Fire and Emergency Services warned.
Elsewhere in the Kimberley and along the north coast to Nhulunbuy, a severe weather warning was issued for damaging winds up to 100 kilometres per hour.
The warning, due to persistent monsoonal squalls, led Darwin to cancel its New Year's Eve fireworks.
Meanwhile, Northern Territory authorities lifted an emergency declaration for Timber Creek on Saturday, a week after Ellie caused a one-in-50-year flood.
Most homes in the remote township and outlying homelands have been declared safe by authorities but some residents will continue being accommodated in Defence's Bradshaw training area.
"I am heartened by the community resilience and actions of many local residents who acted swiftly, together with our first responders, to ensure everyone could be safely accommodated while emergency repairs were undertaken," NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said.
About 70 per cent of the community spent December 23 on the local basketball court as heavy rains lashed the remote town near the West Australian border.
About 230mm of rain fell in 24 hours.
