Regional communities are bracing for a heavy rain event threatening to wash out the weekend in parts of Victoria and southern New South Wales.

The regions in the firing line set for a soaking include western and northern Victoria, with rain expected to thrash the regions, before moving through eastern parts of Victoria and possibly the South Coast of NSW.

Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) meteorologist Dean Narramore said a low was developing over Western Australia today and tomorrow, which would move through South Australia on Friday and then drench south-eastern parts of the country at the weekend.

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"At this stage, the heaviest falls look to be through northern Victoria, western Victoria as well, and possibly I believe southern NSW," he said.

"The other unfortunate news is – it looks like some of that rain is going to spill over the Lachlan River.

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"It means those flood-weary communities could be seeing more rain, particularly Saturday night into Sunday."

The intense rainfall has sparked fresh flood warnings for the NSW central-west town of Forbes.

Mr Narramore said the town could see anywhere between 15mm to 25mm of rain.

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The worst of the rain is expected to hit further south of the town, particularly along the Murray River, where larger amounts of rainfall between 30mm and 50mm are forecast.

"Looks like the heaviest falls will miss Melbourne," Mr Narramore said.

"It is through northern and eastern parts of Victoria and possibly the South Coast of NSW – areas that are already saturated.

"We have numerous warnings out for those locations. We could see renewed rises on many rivers again as we move across into the weekend and early next week."

NSW SES has directed people within low-lying areas of Forbes to evacuate out of the high danger area as floodwaters will progressively close roads.

Mr Narramore said wintery weather conditions across parts of the country are set to continue into the early part of summer.

Two protesters have shut down the Newcastle coal port this morning, abseiling off a huge piece of machinery and disrupting operations.

The two women are currently hanging from coal handling machinery as police and emergency rescue crews work to get them down and operations moving again.

Newcastle's coal port has been repeatedly targeted by climate protesters this week, including activists lying on rail tracks to block coal-carrying trains heading to the facility.

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Broadcasting live on Facebook this morning, the two woman can be seen suspended high above enormous piles of coal at the port, with workers milling around below.

Police are moving in to intercept the pair.

More to come.

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If you've been finding the high price of red meat a little hard to swallow lately, the latest predictions won't make you feel any better.

Pastoral group Elders believes the price of meat will be under pressure for 18 months or more because demand is still outstripping supply.

Butchers are now seeing it first-hand.

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Michael Honeysett, managing director of Craig Cook's Prime Quality Meats, said prime cuts of beef are now up to 30 per cent more expensive than this time last year.

"Not in 31 years of butchery have I ever seen such a thing," he told 9News.

And it's not over yet.

"I think, at the moment, we're probably going to be looking at a rise of 10 to 15 per cent before the end of the year," Mr Honeysett said.

Brutal droughts over the past 10 to 15 years have decimated the national beef herd, as graziers culled stock.

With recent good rain and green pastures, those same graziers are now trying to restock — meaning the limited supply is in high demand.

Meat & Livestock Australia recently reported record prices at the sale yards.

"There's just nothing out there at the moment," Mr Honeysett said.

"Your restockers are buying all the cattle and your feed prices have gone up, so everything has worked towards putting prices up — they're all skyrocketing at the moment."

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The price of lamb already had its surge 18 months ago, making it expensive but more stable.

Family staples sausages and mince still remain the best value.

Higher feed costs have flowed through to other meats, but Mr Honeysett said there is some good news for the Christmas table.

"Your hams, your turkeys and your pork should be very close to what we paid last year," he said.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has caused problems for the rest of the family shopping basket.

Deakin University has been tracking the price of around 7000 items on the shelves of Woolworths and Coles for the past three years.

It found fresh fruit went up by seven per cent, butter by 13 per cent, oils up four per cent, long-life milk three per cent, and eggs up by two per cent.

Dried pasta rose by 15 per cent, although one brand jumped by 37 per cent.

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Global restrictions, staff shortages and supply chain issues are key factors, but Professor Gary Mortimer of the QUT Business School said our behaviour also played a part.

"As a result of panic buying and stockpiling, there was a requirement to run factories almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Professor Mortimer said.

"That led to higher wage costs. Those wage costs and extra productions costs are now filtering into higher prices."

There is, though, one aspect of the pandemic working in our favour — a bounty of rock lobsters.

In the past, 90 per cent were being exported. That's on hold again this year, meaning prices as low as $70 a kilogram.

It's the lowest price since 2015 and half what they were two years ago.

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Australia Post is pleading with motorists to take more care in the lead-up to Christmas, with posties increasingly being endangered by careless drivers.

Mounted cameras have caught footage of fully stationary posties being hit by careless drivers, despite the delivery workers being dressed head-to-toe in high-visibility attire.

Australia Post CEO Paul Graham said the safety of his staff was his main concern.

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"The most important thing is that people who come to work for Australia Post go home safe," he said.

"That is the number one priority."

He has urged Australians to look for Australia Post team members on the road.

Postie Marie Leveque has had close encounters with vehicles and worries that without more focus from drivers a serious incident could occur.

"We can lose our life for something silly that they are not focusing on," she said.

Ms Leveque recently traded her bicycle for a new three-wheeled electric vehicle, which offers better protection, multiple cameras and high visibility warning and top-speed signs.

Posties are set to be on the roads even more in the lead-up to Christmas due to a surge in deliveries and online shopping.

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A Perth family stranded for four days the Simpson Desert have been rescued.

South Australian police today sent a helicopter to Oodnadatta, a remote area of the state's outback, where the Zavros family's 4WD vehicle was bogged.

The family-of-four became stranded on Friday morning after bad weather and flooding on the desert roads.

In a statement released just before 5pm today, South Australian police said the family had been winched to safety.

"The family are being flown to Coober Pedy to stay the night, where they will then make their own further travel arrangements," the statement said.

The family was handed drinks and ice blocks after they touched down in the SA town of in Coober Pedy.

The long journey to collect them began around 8am when the helicopter left Adelaide Airport.

It had to make a quick fuel stop at Port Augusta Airport before making its way north.

Two more fuel stops were needed before it arrived at the Zavros' location near the Northern Territory border.

After activating an emergency beacon it took four hours for a maritime safety plane sent from Melbourne to find the family and drop a care package

It was previously expected rescue could take as long as two weeks as police wait for flooded roads to clear.

Ori Zavros, his wife Lindsey and children Zane and Zoe became stuck in a remote region in the state's north after their homemade campervan became bogged along Purni Bore Track in Witjira National Park.

The trapped family was airdropped essential supplies including a satellite phone to call home, earlier this week.

"It was awful…absolutely awful," Theo said.

"My mind was going through illness, accident."

"It was just the unknown – we didn't know what state they were going to find things in," Lagis added.

The family has been travelling around the country since last year.

Ori's parents Theo and Lagis Zavros told 9News they were very worried at first

They set off from Birdsville in Queensland on Monday to make their way through a remote National Park, near the Northern Territory border, then wild weather hit.

Police are scouring a yard at the home where William Tyrrell went missing from seven years ago as they investigate whether he fell from a balcony at the property.

Hundreds of officers and dozens of Rural Fire Service volunteers are conducting a fresh search of the area surrounding the boy's foster grandmother's house in Kendall on the NSW Mid North Coast.

William disappeared from the home in 2014, when he was three-years-old.

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Police said yesterday they were looking for William's body in the new search.

Today investigators are digging up the garden below a second-floor balcony and sifting through dirt as they search for clues about what happened to the little boy.

Police are investigating whether William might have fallen from the balcony of his foster grandmother's home.

Detectives are using a chemical that detects traces of blood and officers have also brought in a cadaver dog.

This morning, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told 2GB: "I'm confident that the team who has the investigation at the moment can solve it."

When asked whether detectives were focusing on anyone of interest, Mr Fuller added: "My understanding is, from the investigators, is that there is certainly one person in particular that we are looking closely at."

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NSW Police Minister David Elliott also said this morning he had confidence in the investigators.

"Police wouldn't be deploying these resources, wouldn't be putting this energy into a search of this magnitude, unless they were confident they would be able to get at least some extra information relating to the disappearance of William," he told Today.

He said police and Rural Fire Service volunteers were expected to be deployed in the search for two to three weeks.

"We've got an excellent Rural Fire Service here in NSW," Mr Elliott said.

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"They are experts in managing the ground, in identifying any soil that may have been moved, in any ground that's been disturbed, and that's what they are looking out for."

Nine Crime Editor Simon Bouda said it was a "very focused search".

"What we saw yesterday was a lot of preparation on bushland here on the road on Batar Creek Road Kendall on the corner of Cobb And Co Road," he said.

"This is an area that has now become the centre of attention. There are three locations here that are of significant interest to the police."

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Bouda told Today that among the investigators were specialists including an archeologist and a specialist in human remains.

"The sad part about this is, we're not looking for a little boy who's missing, but a little boy who's died," he said.

Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett from NSW Police yesterday refused to reveal if there had been a tip-off or a human source was involved in the decision to launch the new operation.

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But he underlined the search would focus on new areas, go underground, involve "specialist assistance" and new technologies.

"It's highly likely that if we found something, it would be a body," he said.

"We are looking for the remains of William Tyrrell, no doubt about that."

Chief Superintendent Bennett said the search was being guided by "the holistic nature of a number of pieces of evidence … and we think it provides us with the best chance of finding him".

William, at the time aged three, disappeared from his foster grandmother's property on Benaroon Drive in Kendall at about 10.30am on September 12, 2014.

Despite a massive search for William, who would have turned 10 in June, and the investigation continuing over several phases, the little boy has never been found.

Over the years, police have put pressure on several suspects who have since been ruled out.

This evening it was revealed William's sister has been removed from their foster parents' care.

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