Lavenders Bridge at Bellingen was closed early this morning after flooding overnight.

The SES said the Bellinger River peaked at 6.24 metres at 01:23 am.

The waters are subsiding but a large tree branch has washed onto the side of the bridge and at 6.20am Fire & Rescue trucks were blocking people and vehicles from crossing.

A council worker estimated that it would be another hour or two before the bridge opened to cars, as they were waiting on the arrival of a crew to cut up and remove the branch.

The bridge was being washed free of sludge and the bridge rails, which are dropped when flooding is imminent, were still down.

The council worker said crews had been out all night around the shire and the flooding was twice as bad at Gleniffer.

The Crystal Creek rain gauge reports the highest total of 245mm since 9am on Sunday with Thora only 2mm behind.

Kombu’s weather station says that Bellingen received 170mm of rain in that period.

7am update: crews removing the tree at 6.45am

Since 9am 16 Dec

Bellinger River

Dorrigo(Mountain Top)  235

Thora 243

Gleniffer  200

Crystal Creek 245

Upper Darkwood  121

Kalang River

Kooroowi (Sharabel) 226

Kooroowi (Scotchman) 188

Cooks Ck (Kalang)  146

Spicketts Ck (Noonannie)  184