Weatherzone meterologist Chris Matthews said wet conditions will linger for the rest of the week.

“Once the low moves offshore, we will be stuck with fairly decent south-easterly winds and they are bringing moisture straight in off the ocean ... We are pretty much going to see showers for the [rest of the week]. The totals won’t be huge, but we are certainly not looking at what we’ve seen this week,” he said.

For now, Turner is preparing for the mammoth clean-up effort that lies ahead. She says it will take months to get the mud out of her home, replace the cupboards and furniture and wash out the animals’ beds and pens.

But she also wants to know why there weren’t more controlled releases from Warragamba Dam, whether nearby building developments exacerbate the floods and why they are yet to receive any state-funded flood relief after they lost their belongings in the March event.

“What do we do? We keep getting wiped out over and over,” she said. “Where would we even move to? We have no choice, we are stuck being flooded ... As soon as the flood is over, no one cares any more. But we still have to clean up, repair, replace furniture, pay rent, we still have to do everything and there is no help.”

Meanwhile, tugboat crews are planning to tow the damaged cargo ship Portland Bay into Port Botany on Wednesday if the weather eases. The 169-metre bulk carrier is anchored about 1.5 kilometres off Cronulla Beach, with tugboats in attendance, while the crew tries to fix the broken engine.

Its engine failed in rough seas on Monday, and the powerless ship was drifting towards the rugged cliffs off the Royal National Park before it was saved by the arrival of tugboat Diamantina just after 10am.

An attempt by the Diamantina and two other tugs to tow the damaged ship further out to sea for repairs failed on Monday night, when a thick steel cable linking the ship and a tug snapped under the strain.

“We tried to get the vessel further away from the coastline, but that wasn’t to be and this is the next best thing, while the weather remains atrocious,” said Ports Authority of NSW chief executive Philip Holliday.

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A towing ship from Newcastle, the Glenrock, completed a voyage south to reach the Portland Bay off Cronulla at around 1pm on Tuesday. The plan is to use the Glenrock to tow the ship into Botany Bay when safe to do so.

“Tomorrow is a window we may be able to use,” said Holliday, a former Sydney Harbour master, with responsibility for the safety of all shipping in the city’s ports. “The priority of this operation remains the safety of all involved and protecting the NSW coastline.”

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