Prime Minister Scott Morrison, talking at a press conference at Parliament House on Tuesday morning (March 1) said further Australian Defence Force assets would be brought in to help with the ongoing emergency, including helicopters and crews based at Albatross.

"This is a serious, extreme weather, flood event and it will continue for many days to come," Mr Morrison said.

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He said some 600 ADF personnel had already been activated to help in the flood response effort.

"The weather event will extend to the South Coast of NSW and we must all continue to prepare ourselves for impact for those regions," Mr Morrison said.

"And there is potential to impact even further south.

"We will continue to position further ADF support along the east coast of NSW.

"We have Albatross at Nowra, assets coming down with aircraft from Amberley (Queensland) to support the North Coast and down into the Central Coast and assets from Holsworthy where Black Hawks are stationed - all are able to assist should they be called upon to do so."

Army MRH-90 helicopters from Oakey, in the Townsville region, have already been activated and have carried out rescues and operations across parts of Queensland and around the Ballina area on Tuesday morning.

The Royal Australian Navy's MRH-90 helicopters are based at HMAS Albatross, at 808 Squadron.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton said ADF crews had rescued 74 people through a number of missions across Queensland and now into the Far North Coast.

"The pilots and crews need to be commended....their incredible bravery has been seen on display," he said.

"We have had ADF assets pre-positioned, activated and in position a lot earlier than otherwise they might have been called out, to not only get people on the ground during the operation and post for help."

He said MRH-90 helicopters had arrived in Ballina from Oakey.

"The MRH-90s have long range ability," he said.

"We will be positioning the helicopters along the east coast as the cell moves further south.

"They have a long range and the ability to fan out in many different directions."

Mr Morrison said the ADF response to the flood emergency had been "swift and comprehensive".

"We have been able to meet all requests made by the states and we were also able to anticipate those requests," he said.

"The rotary air wing assets are proving incredibly important - the weather in and around Lismore for instance was very difficult, it was not easy to get aerial assets in place to undertake rescues.

"A few got in and did an incredible job

"It was not just the ADF - CareFlight and civilian aircraft."