Flood warnings remain in place for large parts of Queensland with heavy rainfall to continue on Saturday after significant falls overnight.
Inland parts of the state affected by severe floods in recent days are subject to major flood warnings, including on the Thomson, Barcoo, Bullo, Paroo and Warrego rivers.
Flood waters have cut off roads and isolated central and southwest communities after days of rain, forcing many to flee – including an entire town.
The population of Adavale – a south-west town of about 30 people – was flown out by helicopter to nearby Quilpie after being inundated.
Central Queensland’s Stonehenge, Jundah and Windorah have been hit hard also after some areas recorded up to 600mm, nearly double the yearly average annual rainfall.
It triggered flooding not seen since 1974, ensuring a long wait for water to recede for some.
But the Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has already turned his attention to the aftermath.
Personal hardship assistance has been activated along with concessional loans and freight subsidies to help primary producers in a string of western Queensland communities.
“We do have a crisis when it comes to the impact of agriculture in a large part of our state,” Crisafulli said.
“You are dealing with many, many hundreds of thousands of acres of country that will be inundated.
“You’ve got somewhere in the order of a million head of cattle, a million sheep who are impacted at the moment and we could see stock losses into the hundreds of thousands.”
The Bureau of Meteorology has also issued flood warnings for other rivers such as the Flinders and Cloncurry and for large parts of the state’s south-east including Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine coasts.
“For Queensland, flooding is quite a dynamic situation at the moment, and these warnings and watches are being updated regularly,” meteorologist Jonathan How said.
“We have seen a number of severe thunderstorm warnings being issued overnight around the Wide Bay area.
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“We may be issuing further severe thunderstorm warnings through the day, with the focus very much being across south-eastern parts of the state.”
The Wide Bay area, which includes major centres such as Bundaberg and Hervey Bay, received the highest rainfall of 100mm-200mm overnight and into Saturday morning, while 100-150mm fell over the northern suburbs of Brisbane.
“Across Queensland, there is a lot of tropical moisture, and this will drive widespread rain and storms for much of [the] eastern and central parts today. Heavy falls are possible,” How said.
Rainfall has also increased in New South Wales, including at Lightning Ridge and Walgett in the state’s northwest, the Northern Rivers region and in the Sydney, Central Coast and Illawarra regions.
In Western Australia, tropical cyclone Dianne formed as a category one system off the Kimberley coast on Friday night, crossing the coast early on Saturday morning just north of Cockatoo Island.
How said it was forecast to be downgraded to a tropical low but would still bring strong winds and heavy rains on Saturday.
He said a tropical cyclone warning was in place for northern parts of Western Australia, covering areas between Derby and Kuri Bay, and there was a severe weather warning for inland parts of the Kimberley.
Large parts of the Kimberley, extending into eastern parts of the Northern Territory, are on flood watch.
With AAP
