Floods across eastern Australia forced more than 13,000 people to evacuate their homes on Tuesday, March 6 after record-high summer rains drenched three states over the past week, swelling rivers and forcing dams to overflow.

In the worst-hit state of New South Wales, authorities ordered 8,000 people to leave their homes in the inland city of Wagga Wagga, where flood waters were expected to breach an 11-metre levee and swamp houses and the main business district.

Thousands of people in Wagga Wagga moved to shelter at local schools, while the centre of the town, home to around 60,000 people, was deserted on Tuesday.

Heavy rains across Australia's east over the past week also prompted flood warnings in the northern Queensland state, and in Victoria, where residents in some small towns have been warned to prepare to evacuate if conditions worsen. Two people have been killed in flood waters over the past week, Reuters reported.

In early 2011, Australia suffered disastrous floods which killed around 35 people, swamped 30,000 houses, wiped out roads and bridges and flooded coal mines, denting exports and economic growth.