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A UK professor has claimed the mysterious circle of Stonehenge served as a "solar calendar" for ancient peoples, following recent discoveries about the site.

The suggestion that Stonehenge functioned as some kind of calendar or seasonal arbiter is long-established, but a new analysis Professor Timothy Darvill of the University of Bournemouth has established how it might have actually worked.

"Now, discoveries brought the issue into sharper focus and indicate the site was a calendar based on a tropical solar year of 365.25 days," Professor Darvill said in a news release.

LIVE UPDATES: Evacuations across Sydney as floodwaters rise

Recent research had shown that Stonehenge's sarsens were added during the same phase of construction at about 2500 BCE.

They were sourced from the same area and subsequently remained in the same formation.

This indicates they worked as a single unit, Professor Darvill said.

He identified a solar calendar in their layout, suggesting they served as a physical representation of the year that helped the ancient inhabitants of Wiltshire keep track of the days, weeks, and months.

"The proposed calendar works in a very straightforward way," he said.

"Each of the 30 stones in the sarsen circle represents a day within a month, itself divided into three weeks each of 10 days."

READ MORE: Russia sets Ukraine key demands for end of fighting

Additionally, an extra month of five days and a leap day every four years were needed to match the solar year.

"The intercalary month, probably dedicated to the deities of the site, is represented by the five trilithons in the centre of the site," Professor Darvill said.

"The four Station Stones outside the Sarsen Circle provide markers to notch-up until a leap day."

Trilithons are the structures of Stonehenge that consist of two upright standing stones, with a third lintel stone placed horizontally between them at the top.

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Professor Darvill said the "calendar" was likely linked to summer and winter solstices, which would be framed by the trilithons – also enabling people to re-calculate the date.

Professor Darvill said similar calendars were adopted by many cultures during the same period.

"Such a solar calendar was developed in the eastern Mediterranean in the centuries after 3000 BCE and was adopted in Egypt as the Civil Calendar around 2700 BCE and was widely used at the start of the Old Kingdom about 2600 BCE," he said.

Professor Darvill speculated that the construction of Stonehenge could have been influenced by one of those outside cultures.

"Finding a solar calendar represented in the architecture of Stonehenge opens up a whole new way of seeing the monument as a place for the living," he said.

"A place where the timing of ceremonies and festivals was connected to the very fabric of the universe and celestial movements in the heavens."

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered Europe's biggest and bloodiest security crisis since World War II.

While immediate attention is on the fierce resistance by the outgunned Ukrainians and the plight of civilians, it is important to look at possible outcomes and their impacts.

Matthew Sussex, a senior fellow at the Centre for Defence Studies at the Australian Defence College in Canberra, has outlined three potential scenarios.

LIVE UPDATES: NSW hit with more rain

Long war

With his forces engaged in intense fighting in Kyiv and other major cities, Russian President Vladimir Putin could be prepared to dig in for an extended war.

Associate Professor Sussex told nine.com.au that the Russian war machine is already feeling the strain of the conflict.

"It looks like the Russian military has shot a lot of their guided munitions … and there are reports they're calling up about 1000 troops from Syria."

But he said while Mr Putin's plan for a lightning takeover of Ukraine backfired badly, he remains committed to fighting and bringing the country under Moscow's sphere of influence.

"He has for a long time said that Ukraine doesn't deserve to exist as a state," he said.

"That Ukrainians and Russians are just one people driven apart by the West.

"So he has […] achieved some of his aims already."

Associate Professor Sussex said an extended war – perhaps lasting for years – will see Ukraine's cities levelled by Russian bombardment and a fierce insurgency against the invaders.

READ MORE: Russia sets Ukraine key demands for end of fighting

Diplomatic solution

With Ukrainian forces – regularly supplied with western anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons – repulsing Russian attacks, together with international sanctions biting, could Mr Putin sue for peace.

Associate Professor Sussex said that largely depends on offering the Russian president a diplomatic "off-ramp", involving some compromise by Ukraine.

'There is no such thing as a moderate member of the Kremlin hierarchy'

That could involve Mr Putin achieving at least one of his demands, such as Ukraine recognising the two breakaway regions in the Donbas region as separate states, a guarantee of neutrality in Ukraine or a commitment that Ukraine never joins NATO.

READ MORE: Australia listed as 'unfriendly country' by Russia as sanctions bite

"Or it may involve basically splitting Ukraine and installing a pro-Kremlin puppet in part of the country," he said.

But a diplomatic solution would also mean Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy giving some ground.

The popular leader flagged before peace talks last week that he was willing to discuss "neutral status" for Ukraine — one of Mr Putin's three demands.

But another demand by the Kremlin – the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine – suggests Mr Putin will never accept any agreement under which Mr Zelenskyy stays on as president.

Russia widens the war

Both Russian success or failure in Ukraine could risk the conflict spilling over into another country in Europe, Associate Professor Sussex warned.

An outright victory in Ukraine could see Mr Putin turn his attention to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, maybe even Poland.

All these countries are part of the NATO which have been reinforced recently with troops from other alliance members such as the US and Britain.

The US has pledged to defend NATO member states bordering Russia if they are attacked.

"It remains unclear whether Putin wants a wider war," Associate Professor Sussex said.

He says the Russian leader is a "gambler" who could try to ramp up tensions by staging some kind of demonstration of strength against NATO.

Equally, a defeated or humiliated Russia, may box in Mr Putin domestically and diplomatically.

"And then he has the temptation to lash out … possibly against NATO."

Associate Professor Sussex also dismissed some western commentary that Mr Putin could be swayed by "moderate" figures in the Kremlin.

He said Russia's leading politicians and defence chiefs are all behind their president.

"There is no such thing as a moderate member of the Kremlin hierarchy."

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A large and ominous rumble woke Shafiqa Irwin at 4am.

Seconds later, a massive landslide, triggered by torrential rain in northern New South Wales, smashed through her home in the usually serene Wilsons Creek.

In the darkness, Ms Irwin found herself covered in rubble.

LIVE UPDATES: Evacuations across Sydney as floodwaters rise

She called out to her partner Alex, but there was nothing.

The surging wave of wet earth and debris that crashed all the way through their wooden two-level home early on Monday morning had knocked him unconscious.

When he came to, he helped dig Ms Irwin free.

Both her legs were broken, and a neighbour helped move them to safety.

It took 38 long and painful hours for a helicopter to fly in and rescue them, according to an online fundraising page which friends have set up to help the pair rebuild their home.

Today, in the face of harrowing stories like Ms Irwin's, an apologetic NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet admitted many people in flood-hit northern areas of the state had been left feeling abandoned by the government and emergency services.

https://omny.fm/shows/ben-fordham-full-show/im-incredibly-sorry-nsw-premier-admits-flood-ravag/embed?style=cover

"I'm incredibly sorry," Mr Perrottet said on 2GB, following his visits to Lismore where devastating floodwaters which reached 14.5 metres have killed five and left thousands homeless.

"I don't want anyone in our state to ever feel that they are isolated and abandoned," he said.

"And it's very clear to me, over the course of this period (and through) so many heartbreaking stories, that that's how many people felt."

READ MORE: Russia sets Ukraine key demands for end of fighting

READ MORE: Apprentice told 'you're female. We can't risk having a lawsuit'

Other residents around Lismore told 2GB stories of major landslides, a lack of police and emergency services crew on the ground and dramatic rescues being orchestrated by people who were scaling dangerous cliff faces to help their neighbours.

"We need more army, we need more police," a man known only as Jake told 2GB.

"It's a state of emergency.

"There is not enough police here, not enough help, just volunteers.

"There are landslides and regular people are trying to scale cliffs to rescue people, pregnant people, elderly people, babies and families."

Jake said "so many people" were still unaccounted for.

'You have to see it to believe it'

Mr Perrottet said the damage inflicted on Lismore and the surrounding areas, where he has spent the past few days, was incomprehensible.

"You've got to see it to actually really believe it," he said.

"When people say, or might say, 'Oh it's not that bad', well, I can tell you, it is that bad.

"The sights there are devastating."

Mr Perrottet said he had heard countless stories of "courage and heroism" that had saved lives in northern NSW.

Currently the death toll in NSW from the floods stands at five, but that number could climb as the clean-up and salvage operation begins in earnest.

Mr Perrottet said he had met a man who had carried out rescues on his jet ski, including saving a boy from from floodwaters that were beginning to swallow a two-storey home.

"He called out if there was anybody in there and out came a four-year-old boy in a life jacket who this man rescued," Mr Perrottet said.

"And that's just one story.

"There are hundreds and hundreds of these stories that have occurred."

Mr Perrottet predicted it would take "a massive operation" to get scores of homeless people into emergency housing.

The government was making available hotels, motels, and Airbnb rentals, and a fleet of campervans was under discussion, he said.

About 1300 ADF personnel would be on the ground by tonight, Mr Perrottet said, adding he had bumped up a request for 5000 soldiers to assist with the clean-up, help fix roads and get emergency supplies into worst-hit areas.

"Our focus right now is to get this cleaned up … as quickly as possible to get these communities back on their feet (and) to get people into housing, which is going to be a major challenge over the coming weeks."

There would "absolutely" be an immediate review of how the state handles natural disasters, which are on the rise, he said.

Mr Perrottet said those plans included continuing to look at building the Warragamba Dam higher to try and avert flooding north-west of Sydney.

Heavy rainfall of 120-150 mm is expected in Sydney today.