FLOODWATERS ARE RECEDING in Sydney and its surrounding area as heavy rain threatened to inundate towns north of Australia’s largest city.

Evacuation orders and official warnings to prepare to abandon homes were given to 60,000 people for today, down from 85,000 yesterday, New South Wales state premier Dominic Perrottet said.

But towns including Maitland and Singleton in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, were still threatened by inundation, Perrottet said.

Around 50 rescues were made in the past 24 hours, several of which involved people stranded in cars in floodwaters, he said.

Emergency services minister Steph Cooke said record-breaking rain that began around Sydney on Friday last week was easing.

“It is very pleasing to see that the weather situation is starting to ease after almost a week of relentless rain,” she said.

The weather system that had brought heavy rain to a vast swathe of New South Wales was moving further from the coast out to sea north of Sydney, said Bureau of Meteorology manager Diana Eadie.

Bulga, a town about 110 miles north of Sydney, experienced its highest flood level since 1952, she said.

Taree, some 200 miles north of Sydney, was drenched by 12 inches of rain overnight – almost a third of the town’s annual rainfall average, Eadie said.