Murrumbidgee threatens Riverina levee, New South Wales

A NSW Riverina hamlet has been evacuated and residents of another area have been given the all-clear to return home after six days.

The 1000-strong town of Darlington Point was cleared as the swollen Murrumbidgee River threatened the local levee.

The State Emergency Service (SES) said an evacuation order was activated on Saturday, ahead of the river's expected peak of 7.8 metres on Sunday night.

"The reason they were evacuated was because an engineer did an assessment of the levee and the engineer wasn't prepared to sign off on that levee," SES spokesman Phil Campbell told AAP.

Reports of a leaking levee were dismissed as false.

The bigger downstream town of Narrandera has been issued with a flood evacuation warning.

In the state's central west, 1000 residents of Forbes were given permission to return home early on Sunday afternoon, six days after they were evacuated from the path of the swollen Lachlan River. Read More