Man rescued from rising floodwaters in Australia after spending 10 hours clinging to tree

A man has been rescued from floodwaters in Australia after spending 10 hours clinging to a tree.

The man was found by rescue crews at 4am on Tuesday morning in the Brogo River near Bega in New South Wales, after he entered the water on Monday evening.

He was taken to hospital, but the State Emergency Service crew suffered no injuries in the operation.

A spokesperson said: "NSW SES crews have successfully retrieved a man from flood waters north of Bega in the the early hours of the morning.

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"Its understood the man had been clinging to a tree in the Brogo River since 6pm Monday night, when his rescuers found him just before 4am.

"Three SES members from Queanbeyan - Palerang supported by four Bega Valley members wasted no time in getting the man to safety."

Several parts of the south east experienced flooding on Monday after heavy rain.

But the heavy rain has helped to extinguish wildfires across NSW.

The deluge had helped firefighters extinguish "over 30 fires" over the weekend, some blazes had been "burning for weeks and even months".