It was the rescue mission that gripped the world — 12 boys and their football coach, stranded in a flooded cave in Thailand for 17 desperate days.

Four years on, never-before-seen video has emerged from Australian crews who brought home a life-changing story.

The footage was taken by a crack team of six Australian Federal Police divers, wading by torchlight.

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It was a winter afternoon in Canberra when leading Senior Constable Kel Boers answered a call he would never forget.

"His question to me was simple — do you guys cave dive?" he said.

Boers replied: "Sure, why not?"

The story of the stranded football team was just breaking

Within 24 hours, the AFP specialist response group members found themselves part of the multinational mission.

The task was clear: first locate and then rescue the 12 Wild Boars.

They had only one thin rope to guide them.

Their photos show a makeshift camp set on the side of a muddy hill.

Stacks of vital oxygen tanks and production lines of crews carting gear can be seen.

The plan for a complex rescue was scrawled on a whiteboard.

"Once we got into the cave and we sat and waited for the first one to come through the nervous energy was terrible, you could have cut it like a knife," Boers said.

The boys were carried out sedated, oxygenated, and strapped to a stretcher, after being hauled through tiny rock openings by specialist divers.

Then Boers and his team got involved.

"When the first boy came through and everything went smoothly and everything worked like clockwork, and we did medical checks and passed 'em on, it was sort of like — that worked," he said.

It would take three full days before on July 10, 2018, the news the world had been waiting for came.

The boys were safe.

Boers, who recalled eating pizza and KFC with his team mates to keep them going, said the children didn't realise how big their story had become.

"They all thought they had to ride their bikes home when we got them out," he said.

The Australians ended up being among the final crew to get out of the cave.

All were honoured for the effort, with Boers awarded an Order of Australia and Bravery Medal.

Heavy rain and wild winds have returned to large parts of New South Wales as thousands of residents and businesses continue the flood clean-up.

The Bureau of Meteorology forecast areas around Sydney and the Newcastle region could get 10 to 20 millimetres on Sunday, between 20 and 40 millimetres in the Illawarra.

Residents were also being warned of hazardous surf conditions in Byron Coast, Coffs Coast, Macquarie Coast, Hunter Coast, Sydney Coast, Illawarra Coast and Batemans Coast.

READ MORE: Massive NSW flood clean-up underway as government expands disaster payments

Beach conditions in these areas could be dangerous and people should stay well away from the surf and surf-exposed areas, the bureau warned.

The big swell is being caused by a low-pressure system close to New Zealand and a high pressure over southeastern Australia.

The rain is forecast to move away from coastal areas on Monday, but it could return as early as Wednesday.

The severe weather warning came as thousands of NSW residents returned home on Saturday to begin the long journey of recovery after the latest flooding event.

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On Sunday, the Hawkesbury river finally fell below flood level and more people returned home.

For Joanne Kendall and her husband Chris it hasn't been an easy task.

Mr Kendall has been battling leukaemia and is now in remission but has been on the tools trying to clean up.

The federal government expanded the flood disaster payments to include eight more local government areas which were devastated by floodwaters.

Residents in Cumberland, Mid Coast, Muswellbrook, Nambucca, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Randwick and Warren are now eligible for the payments.

Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Saturday it would take a "major effort" to repair damage to flood-hit communities.

"I had the opportunity this morning with (Emergency Services Minister Steph Cooke) to fly above Maitland and Singleton and see the extent of the damage from above," he said yesterday.

"And the enormity of the challenge in front of us, not just for local communities but governments, to make sure we get our communities back on track was not lost on me."

A 34-year-old man man has died in a accident near Victoria's Great Ocean Road.

The man was one of 12 skydivers left Torquay airport with Australian Skydive around 10.25am.

Both his main parachute and reserve failed to open.

He died at the scene, just off Breamlea Road in Connewarre, just five minutes later.

READ MORE: Melbourne endures another period with limited ambulance services after code red overnight

Victoria Police Fletcher Pearson said he was being coached with another man, who also landed in a paddock near him.

The second skydiver was not injured.

"He's known the other skydiver that he was diving with for over ten years," Pearson said

APF chief executive Richard McCooey said the man was doing his first jump in a 'wing suit'.

It's a special garment which allows the wearer to glide through the air at a slower rate rather than free falling.

He said it was too early to know what happened.

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"We understand that the man had successfully completed 300 jumps and was doing his first jump in a wing suit, under the supervision of an experienced tutor," he said.

"We know very little beyond that at this stage, although it appears the man failed to deploy either of his parachutes.

"This is an awful situation and our thoughts are with the man's family and friends."

McCooey said an Australian Parachute Federation Safety and Training Officer was there, and would begin an investigation.

Police will prepare a report for the coroner.

In July 2021, experienced skydiving instructor Arron Toepfer was killed when his parachute malfunctioned during a tandem skydive, also in Torquay.

The other person survived.

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An elderly man is in a critical condition after being hit by a train in Adelaide.

Emergency services were called to Ovingham Railway Station, in the city's north, just before 9am, after a man was struck by a passing train at the pedestrian crossing on Devonport Terrace.

The 81-year-old was rushed to Royal Adelaide Hospital, and is in a critical condition.

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It's the second incident at the crossing, which due to be upgraded.

There is already work underway.

Warning lights were covered, and safety gates not yet in use.

It comes two weeks after a cyclist was hit by a train at a North Adelaide crossing, where works were also underway.

Both incidents happened on the Gawler line, where work continues after a $900 million electrification project.

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An eight-year-old American boy whose spine was severed in the shooting at a Fourth of July Parade is conscious for the first time since the mass shooting and asking to see his twin brother, his family said.

Doctors don't think Cooper Roberts suffered any brain damage from the bullets that hit his chest, the family announced in a statement that confirmed he is paralysed from the waist down.

The boy was removed from the ventilator. He is in serious condition and is in a great deal of pain, but improving.

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He and his twin brother, Luke, who was struck by shrapnel and is home, loved the Fourth of July parade in their Chicago suburb.

But now the family is envisioning a "new normal" for Cooper who was wounded in a hail of gunfire that left dozens of others wounded and seven dead in Highland Park, said Tony Loizzi, a family spokesperson, said on Friday.

The boys' mother, Keely Roberts, who is the superintendent of the 2300-student Zion Elementary School District, also was hurt but not as seriously. Only the boys' father, Jason Roberts, was unscathed.

The twins are the youngest of six, and their four older sisters — ages 18 to 26 — are doting on Luke while Cooper is hospitalised.

Meanwhile, the boy's mother, who was shot twice in the foot and leg area, has undergone two surgeries and may need a third, Loizzi said.

READ MORE: Parents of young boy found alone at Chicago parade shooting among victims

"Quite frankly, she probably should not have been discharged," Loizzi said. But when she found out Cooper was on a ventilator, she "told her doctors and nurses that they should either discharge or she'd walk out on her own because she needed to be with her son," Loizzi said.

He said the school district where she works is getting offers of support from superintendents around the state, some of them retired. He said they want to help so she can heal and focus on her family.

"They're devastated," he said of the family, "but they're focusing all of their energy right now on Cooper. It's been a very emotional time for everybody in their circle. And if you know Keely, she's just a fighter. And it sounds like Cooper got that part of her in him because he's fighting as hard as he can."

Loizzi described the boy as having a "passion" for sports and the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

"Every time I talk to his mom about him, he's always very active," he added.

A crowdfunding campaign has raised more than $800,000 to help the family with what Loizzi described as "the obvious ongoing treatment and therapy that Cooper will need".

He said that Keely Roberts is a devoted school leader, who works tirelessly for her students and often sends emails in the early hours of the morning.

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