Mapping floods is important for policy makers to make timely decisions in regards to emergency responses and future planning. It is therefore crucial to develop a rapid inundation modelling framework to map flood inundation. This study develops an airborne scanning laser altimetry (LiDAR) digital elevation model (DEM) based Rapid flood Inundation Modelling framework (LiDAR-RIM) for assessment of inundation extent, depth, volume and duration for flood events. The modelling framework has been applied to the mid-Murrumbidgee region in the southeast Murray-Darling Basin, Australia for two flood events occurred in December 2010 and March 2012. The inundation extents estimated using this methodology compared well to those obtained from two Landsat ETM+ images, demonstrating suitability and applicability of this method. For testing possibility of larger area application, the framework also uses 30-m resolution shuttle radar topography mission (SRTM)-DEM to replace LiDAR-DEM for the same modelling. The inundation extents obtained by using the SRTM-DEM are smaller than those obtained using the LiDAR-DEM, especially for large flood events. A possible reason is that the river cross sections obtained from the SRTM-DEM are not accurate enough for inundation modelling. The LiDAR-RIM has an advantage for process modelling and scenario modelling under future climatic conditions.