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The days are "blending into each other" for Louise Battye and her family, who have been cut-off from the world for five days after floodwaters surrounded their outback New South Wales farm.

The only way in-and-out of the 1400-acre property in Nyngan is currently by boat; a strange change after battling through years of drought.

While "Wiralla" has been spared damage thanks to a levee, Battye told 9news.com.au only "60cm of freeboard" was left.

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Last night proved an anxious wait as rain pit-pattered on corrugated tin, amid the threat of a "record-breaking" deluge.

Thankfully by sunrise, a total of just 74mm had fallen.

"We're hoping we don't get much more," Battye said.

"The house is completely surrounded by water.

"We have 1000 acres here and 16,000 at Gongolgon which is also inundated with water and more to come up there, as this water moves through the Bogan system.

Wiralla is home to a head of 600 sheep, 40 cattle, as well as crops of wheat and oats.

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Over the past week Battye has raced against breaks in the rain to move "stranded" sheep to high ground – with the help of family visiting from Orange.

"We wouldn't have been able to save the stock we have without them," she said, adding she has fears for livestock on her other property.

"(There's) 6000 sheep at 'Boonery', our other place, and they are all in one paddock on a hill.

"SES did a fodder drop on Sunday or Monday, I can't remember, the days are blending into each other.

"Crops here at 'Wiralla' are submerged for about the third time since sowing, but this is the worst."

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For farmers living in outback NSW the elements have proved relentless over the past five years.

Before the floods came the dust storms, fuelled by a decade-long drought.

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"We owned a 127,000 acre station in Queensland from 2011 to 2017 and had drought for the five out of six years," Battye said.

"We then moved to Nyngan and ended up with the worst drought I've ever seen; no stock water, no feed.

"The drought here was worse than the bad years we had in Queensland".

"(But) I would rather the water than the dust."

This morning Battye said her boys are checking on the livestock via a kayak, while she's in the midst of organising a chopper to drop more hay.

There is no end in sight for the wet weather, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warning "almost every river" west of the Great Dividing Range in NSW could see moderate to major flooding in the coming hours and days.

Australia has entered it's third consecutive La Nina event, which is predicted to hold until early 2023.

A university student who took LSD and became psychotic before killing his girlfriend, fearing she was a demon, has been jailed for 20 years.

Newcastle Supreme Court Justice Richard Cavanagh said Jordan Brodie Miller, 22, had violently attacked his partner of two years, Emerald Wardle, when delusional and suffering a psychotic disorder caused by the temporary effects of his drug taking.

Cavanagh said Miller believed he had been cursed and needed to kill either himself or Wardle to lift the curse.

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"This was his first episode of psychosis, although these effects were only temporary they were acting upon him at the time he killed Ms Wardle,'' the judge said on Thursday.

Miller, who was 20 at the time, admitted strangling Wardle, 18, but pleaded not guilty to murdering her, claiming he had been in a psychotic state, did not intend to harm her and could not be held criminally responsible.

A jury deliberated for 12 hours in June after a two-week trial before finding Miller guilty of murder, rejecting his claims the killing had been caused by an underlying form of undiagnosed schizophrenia.

Crown prosecutor Lee Carr SC had argued Miller's use of drugs and the lack of any early signs of a psychotic illness pointed to the killing being drug-induced, meaning Miller was guilty of murder as it had been his choice to use drugs.

Cavanagh said on Thursday Miller had a genuinely held psychotic belief Wardle was some sort of demon who had to be killed.

"What this means is not capable of rational or logical explanation. This is because it was not a rational thought or belief.

"Having said that, the only finding available is the offender intended to kill Ms Wardle.

"The fact is that he strangled her. However, that does not mean the attack on Ms Wardle was some sort of planned event."

The judge said a letter written by Miller in August to the court and Wardle's family showed he was remorseful.

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"I want it to be known that in my sound mind I would never have done anything like this," Miller wrote.

"I loved Emerald so much."

Police had found Wardle's body in the ensuite bathroom of the main bedroom at a house at Metford, near Maitland, on June 20, 2020.

Miller told police: "If you walk inside and go into the bathroom, it's in there, the demon. Help me, help me, the demon's got me, help me."

After his arrest, Miller, a regular cannabis smoker from the age of 14 with no history of mental illness or violence, admitted taking a half tablet of LSD 11 days earlier and claimed to have reached spiritual enlightenment but Wardle had been "trying to suck the life out of me".

When police arrived at the scene at 1.20am, Miller was standing outside near the gate wearing tracksuit pants and no shirt or shoes. He ran towards the officers pleading for help.

Wardle's mother, Tania Simshauser, upset at the way her daughter was characterised during Miller's trial, told the judge in her emotional victim impact statement how Miller was the real monster, not her daughter.

"She was not a demon. She was an innocent young woman who was born my daughter but became my very best friend," Simshauser said.

"I, however, will forever live with demons in my mind.

"As I approach sleep every night I am haunted with demons.

"As a mother, I know my baby girl died feeling terrified and alone and that is a demon that will stay with me forever.''

Miller will be eligible for parole after serving 13 years.

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The Ukrainian government has accused the Russian military of running a "mini Auschwitz" after a "torture chamber" was allegedly found in recaptured territory.

Ukraine's Ministry of Defence tweeted out photos of items supposedly recovered from formerly Russian-occupied Pisky-Radkivski.

They included a box of dental crowns, and a gas mask.

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https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1577401183492313089

The mask had been "put on the head of a victim who was covered with a smouldering rag and buried alive", the Ministry claimed.

"A mini Auschwitz. How many more will be found in occupied Ukraine?" the Ministry wrote in a tweet, comparing the alleged Russian atrocities to the Holocaust.

The Ministry did not speculate online as to the source of the dental crowns but some media outlets have suggested they could have been extracted from prisoners.

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German tabloid BILD, however, reported that a local dentist claimed the crowns had been ones he removed from patients over the years.

He said they had been looted from his home by Russian forces.

Multiple accusations of torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners and civilians have been levelled at Russian forces since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

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Mass graves and brutalised bodies have allegedly been discovered in areas controlled or attacked by invading troops.

Human Rights Watch claims to have verified a number of those claims.

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When Jana Pittman's mum phoned her daughter and said she thought she was having a heart attack and described her symptoms, the Olympic athlete-turned-doctor knew exactly what was wrong.

Jackie, 73, wasn't having a heart attack, but she did have a painful virus which will affect one in three Aussies during their lives – shingles.

Jana sent her mum to her GP, who confirmed the diagnosis.

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Jackie also had other symptoms, including a rash so painful she described it as "like the worst sunburn you could ever have".

"It was pretty shocking watching mum go through it," Pittman, 39, said.

Jackie initially thought she had an allergy, but the pain soon became "unbearable".

"It was first of all like a stabbing pain – it was on the right-hand side and Jana said it can't be a heart attack," Jackie told 9news.com.au.

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"I went to my GP. By then, I'd left it a bit too long. The pain really started.

"The best way for me to describe it is to say aside from the stabbing pain – which made it hard for me to breathe – it's like the worst sunburn you could ever have."

The rash was so painful she could only wear loose pyjamas and as there's no cure, she took pain relief and used in chamomile lotion to ease the itching.

And while most people recover from the virus, for some symptoms hang around.

Jackie suffered from ongoing pain for six weeks.

Almost a year later, she still has some itching in the area her rash developed.

Now the mother and daughter have teamed up to raise awareness of the virus.

Pittman competed in hurdles and later bobsled, making her the first Aussie to compete in both Summer and Winter Olympics, before studying medicine. 

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She's backing a campaign to help raise awareness about shingles, which affects up to 120,000 Aussies a year.

The Know Shingles website, created by pharmaceutical company GSK Australia, aims to bust the myths and help people learn the symptoms.

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A GSK survey found only eight per cent of Australians asked thought they were at risk of getting shingles in the next year.

And Jackie admits she was confused about the link with chicken pox.

"I thought you could only catch shingles if you'd had direct contact with somebody with chickenpox," she said.

Shingles itself isn't contagious – unless you've never had chicken pox, in which case it appears as chicken pox.

However, you can't catch shingles from someone else if you've had chicken pox – which almost every Aussie has.

It's not known exactly what causes it to develop.

Jackie warned people, especially of her age, to see their GP as soon as possible if they have symptoms.

"If you have a rash that is unusual, go to your GP and have it checked out – maybe if I had gone earlier maybe I wouldn't have had such an long reaction," she said.

Pittman, who now works in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Hospital for Women in Randwick, wants more people to be aware of the risks, especially if they are over 50 or immunocompromised.

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"People just assume it's not going to happen to them," she said.

"It's really stopping people's lives."

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) president Karen Price backed the campaign.

"Shingles is a health condition that must be taken very seriously," she said.

"It can be an incapacitating condition, particularly for those who develop persistent nerve pain, which can last months after the rash."

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What is shingles?

Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful, blistering rash.

It is caused by the same virus as chickenpox, the varicella zoster virus.

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You can only get shingles, also known as herpes zoster, if you have had chicken pox.

Shingles isn't contagious – except if you haven't had chicken pox, in which case it can be passed on as chicken pox.

Seventy per cent of cases are in over-50s, according to Australian research

Shingles symptoms

An itchy rash, with painful blisters, usually on one side of the body, either on the face, chest, back, abdomen or pelvis.

The pain is often described as burning, shooting or stabbing.

It can last for weeks.

While most people make a full recovery, in around 10 per cent of people, shingles can cause ongoing pain or tingling, called post-herpetic neuralgia.

Qantas has apologised to a woman who was left "absolutely disgusted" after initially being refused compensation from the airline that left her wheelchair badly damaged.

It was only after she exposed her experience publicly that the company said it made the wrong decision.

Australian writer and disability activist Zoe Simmons wrote on social media that following a recent flight she was returned her wheelchair with a left brake that was "no longer working".

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Simmons said the damage meant she couldn't "safely go down slopes, hills or steer without risk of crashing or injuring" herself.

Faced with having to buy a completely new wheelchair, Simmons hoped Qantas would assist in covering the cost, which can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

But in an emailed response, the airline said it was not liable for "minor" damage. Simmons said she was left "so angry" by the level of "crap" disabled people experience and "even more so when it comes to air travel".

"Airlines do not accept responsibility for minor damages to the brakes, wheels, and handles of your wheelchair. Therefore, I am unable to offer you any financial settlement in this matter," an initial email to Simmons from a Qantas customer service representative said.

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"I realise this may not be the outcome you were hoping for, however, if you are covered by insurance you may be able to claim on that policy."

Simmons was incensed by the response. 

"It's not good enough," she said on Twitter.

"I am really upset. Qantas have told me they consider damaged brakes to be "minor" and therefore will not help me.

"Absolutely disgusting. I'm so mad for the disability community. We put up with so much shit."

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However, after Simmons brought the issue to light, Qantas have since offered to cover the cost of the damages and confirmed the incident would be reviewed to ensure it didn't happen again.

"We appreciate this has been a very frustrating experience for Ms Simmons and we sincerely apologise," a Qantas spokesperson told 9news.com.au

"We have contacted her directly and have offered to pay for the required repairs to her wheelchair."

The airline said Simmons' initial request for compensation was not directed to the correct team that deals with such incidents.

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