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The body of cricket great Shane Warne has arrived in Melbourne on a flight from Thailand where the 52-year-old died from a suspected heart attack one week ago.

Warne's father Keith and mother Brigitte, holding a single flower, were among several family members to meet the flight that arrived on Thursday night.

Warne's sudden passing triggered widespread grief as fans mourned the loss of one of the world's best-ever cricket players.

The Dassault Falcon 7X jet left Thailand's capital Bangkok at 8.25am local time and arrived at Melbourne's Essendon Fields Airport around 8.35pm on Thursday.

The jet taxied to a private hangar where police officers were stationed outside.

Warne's eldest daughter Brooke and son Jackson were at the hangar as was his ex-wife, Simone Callahan.

Following his death on the Thai resort island of Koh Samui last week, Warne's body was taken by ferry to the mainland city of Surat Thani, and then on to Bangkok.

Thai Police said earlier this week autopsy results showed Warne's death was due to natural causes.

Warne's family has accepted the Victorian government's offer of a state funeral, to be held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 30.

The MCG was the stage of the leg spinner's famous Ashes hat-trick in 1994 and 700th Test wicket on Boxing Day in 2006, his final series before he retired from international cricket.

The stadium is across town from Upper Ferntree Gully, the outer Melbourne suburb where Warne was born.

Warne's family issued a statement on Monday night describing the night of his death as the beginning of "a never-ending nightmare".

"Looking to a future without Shane is inconceivable," his father and mother said.

"Hopefully the mountain of happy memories we all have will help us cope with our ongoing grief."

Ticket information for the state funeral is yet to be released, but the Victorian premier said there will no crowd cap at the venue, which can hold up to 100,000 spectators.

"It's a fitting venue to say goodbye to someone who created so many indelible memories on that ground," Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters at parliament on Thursday.

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People whose homes have been damaged or destroyed by the unprecedented flood crisis in NSW will benefit from a half a billion dollar support package.

Premier Dominic Perrottet, who has spent most of the week with flood-affected residents in the Northern Rivers, announced the $551 million housing support package in the town Goonellebah on Thursday.

"We're announcing a package that will approximately support 25,000 households in relation to housing support," he said.

The federal government is funding half the package.

The package will provide 16 weeks rent support ranging from $6000 to more than $18,000 per household.

Of the 9200 homes assessed so far, 5500 are damaged and 2834 are uninhabitable, Mr Perrottet said.

There are 1234 people living in emergency accommodation in the Northern Rivers.

"We want people out of evacuation centres," Mr Perrottet said.

The government will also provide support for pod dwellings and mobile motor homes while people rebuild.

Mr Perrottet said $90 million would be allocated for the mammoth clean-up, saying it would take months.

After more than two weeks of devastating rain that inflicted widespread damage along the state's coast, the sun finally emerged on Thursday.

Residents in some flood-hit areas previously subject to evacuation orders have been told they can begin returning to their homes.

But not all will be habitable, as the slow recovery pushes on, with more than 4000 tonnes of debris collected in one day alone.

Matt Laycock, 24, hailing from the village of The Pocket near Mullumbimby is critical of how authorities have responded so far.

"You've seen civilians doing what the army should be doing... like building pulley systems across rivers ... and people trekking for overnight missions into the hills trying to save people," he told AAP.

His LGA of Byron Bay, as well as Ballina and Tweed council areas, have not been designated as eligible for a quick $2000 disaster relief payment from the federal government.

The 24-year-old with a sizeable social media following has been posting footage of the devastation.

"Offering people that have lost absolutely everything ... just $2000 is a bit of a joke," he said.

The death toll in NSW rose to nine on Wednesday when police found the body of a man believed to be a delivery driver who had been missing since Tuesday.

While there is a reprieve from the rain that has battered the state, a strong wind warning is current along the coast from Byron Bay to Eden.

The Bureau of Meteorology said significant flooding will continue in a number of communities along the Hawkesbury and Nepean River catchment for at least another 24 hours.

State Emergency Services Commissioner Carlene York says preparations are under way to transition to the recovery phase of the operation.

The unprecedented flooding crisis involved more than 1600 SES volunteers on the ground at the peak of the event.

There are still 38 evacuation orders affecting 9000 people as well as 24 evacuation warnings affecting 20,000 across most of the coast.

"Regretfully the rains have started to come from Queensland and western NSW is now going back into flood," Ms York told ABC radio on Thursday.

The Hawkesbury Nepean Valley remains of concern after river levels at Windsor peaked on Wednesday morning with flood levels hitting 13.8 metres - the highest since 1978.

In the Northern Rivers region, the focus is now on cleaning up with more ADF personnel arriving.

"There is a long journey ahead," Mr Perrottet said.

"But from the government's perspective, we will be with you side by side, day after day, week after week, month after month as we move through this difficult time."

The cost of the catastrophic floods continues to rise with NSW insurance claims totalling $663 million - an 18 per cent rise - in the last 24 hours, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese will head to northern NSW on Thursday.

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Scott Morrison is set to have a national emergency declared on Friday, following the devastating flooding across NSW and Queensland.

The decision came despite Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk earlier saying the state would not need the measure.

"The time for that national emergency (declaration) was probably a week ago," Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Thursday, before her call with the prime minister.

"So we've actually gone past that. The floodwaters have gone down, they've subsided, and ... those (state) disaster declarations will be lifted on Sunday."

The prime minister said there had been a misunderstanding over the impact of the national declaration, which would have nothing to do with the flow of funding.

"I will be having a meeting with the governor-general when I return to Canberra and we will be advancing those issues, having undertaken appropriate consultations with the premiers of Queensland and NSW," Mr Morrison said.

The national declaration would allow the Morrison government to access stockpiled resources and removed red tape.

It's the first time such a declaration will be made, with the law only coming into effect in 2020 following the Black Summer bushfires.

Mr Morrison, who toured flood-hit areas of southeast Queensland on Thursday, said federal cabinet would meet on Friday to look at further assistance following the "inland tsunami".

"We will stand with those communities as they go through the rebuilding process."

A meeting with Governor-General David Hurley has been scheduled for Friday night in Canberra.

Labor MP Justine Elliot, whose electorate of Richmond takes in the Ballina region that had been hit by the floods, claimed the government had ignored affected residents in the area.

"People are suffering when we are not part of that announcement," she told ABC Radio on Thursday.

"Many people can't access housing or money and they need urgent assistance, and what we have seen since the flood hit is rolling incompetence from the state and federal governments."

Neighbouring MP Kevin Hogan said there was an overwhelming feeling of trauma and pain.

"This is a multi-year recovery for our region," he told Sky News.

The government has paid out more than $480 million in federal disaster payments to more than 414,000 people in NSW and Queensland since the floods.

Of that, $310 million has been paid out to 268,000 people in NSW, while $170 million has been paid to 146,000 in Queensland.

ADF troops assisting with the clean-up are set to increase to 5748 by the end of the day, with that figure expected to rise to nearly 6540 by the end of Friday.

The Insurance Council of Australia has estimated the damage bill from the floods to be more than $1.7 billion, with that figure expected to rise.

More than 118,000 claims have been made following the disaster, of which 44,193 were from NSW and 73,823 were in Queensland.

The council's chief executive Andrew Hall welcomed commitments from the government to make communities more resilient to natural disasters.

"The Insurance Council and insurers have been calling for an increase in federal government investment in this area to $200 million per year, matched by the states and territories," he said.

"This infrastructure and mitigation investment is vitally important to prevent future harm and devastation to these communities, as we know flood events will inevitably repeat."

© AAP 2022