Ananova:

A volunteer helping to tackle severe flooding in eastern Australia had an emergency of her own when she gave birth 11 weeks prematurely.

Belinda Campbell was cut off from the nearest town, Wee Waa, by swollen rivers and had to be helped through the delivery by her husband Craig, who got instructions by telephone from ambulance staff.

She told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio: "He was good. He helped me get it out and rang people to let them know the baby was there."

The Campbells and Vaughan Lee, their first child, were later evacuated by helicopter from their isolated home near the northern New South Wales town of Wee Waa and taken to a nearby hospital.

The wettest November on record has left up to one third of New South Wales state under water, state authorities say.

More than 600 people have been evacuated from their homes and hundreds more are isolated by flood water and surviving on emergency supplies flown in by helicopter.

The flooding has caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage to wheat and cotton farmers in the region.

Emergency services efforts Thursday were concentrated on Narrabri, 340 miles north of Sydney, where three swollen rivers converge.