Severe rainfalls that have left one man dead, cut off Queensland’s main highway and led 4m crocodiles into suburban areas are continuing to lash the state’s north with severe flood and weather warnings issued across a number of coastal areas.
The Herbert and Lower Burdekin regions, both north and south of Townsville, have been issued severe weather warnings as further rainfall set for the coming days is expected to lead to flooding at multiple locations on the Herbert River.
Flash flooding is also expected between Townsville and Bowen throughout Thursday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, which is forecasting 80-150mm six-hour rainfall totals.
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Further into the state’s saturated north-west, there are fears of major flooding at the town of Richmond given further rainfall expected into Thursday night as well while the Flinders and Cloncurry catchments are also set to be impacted.
The Bruce Highway, Queensland’s coast-long arterial road, remains cut off into Townsville City, while further north floodwaters have reduced it to one lane at the Seymour River Bridge outside Ingham.
Meteorologist Denis Hines told The Townsville Bulletin that rain was continuing to pound a vast swathe of the north from the coastline in Bowen all the way west to Mount Isa.
“The wet weather is showing no signs of slowing down,” he said, warning that it was likely to continue into the first week of January.
“We could well see six-hour rainfall totals of between 100mm and 180mm, some areas could see a further 200mm in six-hour periods … on top of all the wet weather that has already fallen,” he said, adding that some outback areas were tipped to experience a year’s worth of rainfall in one week.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli confirmed that a man in his 70s had died following flash flooding in Normanton, telling Sunrise on Wednesday that the loss would “cut-deep” for the north-west Queensland community.
The man’s body was found inside a submerged car in the far northern town of Normanton on Tuesday afternoon.
“In the end, property can be replaced. People can’t,” Crisafulli told Sunrise from Mount Isa, where he was assessing the damage on Wednesday.
“To experience a loss of life as a result of the flooding is a deep tragedy for the North West Community … to lose one of their own.
“Our big focus remains on infrastructure … it’s the roads, it’s the bridges. We have to make sure that people remain connected.”
Mount Isa District Acting Superintendent Paul Austin praised the efforts of emergency services who responded in the croc-infested waters where the man’s body was found.
“The SES operator was able to align their vessel (with the submerged car), and one of the police officers entered into a significant depth, and was able to get into the vehicle and recover the deceased male,” he told AAP.
“If he hadn’t done what he did, it certainly would have made it a very difficult operation to try and retrieve that vehicle with the deceased in it.
“There’s some really big crocs in the Norman River … what he did was very courageous.”
The Bureau of Meteorology warned that isolated heavy falls of 100mm were still possible in parts of the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders, North West and Central West districts.
Six-hourly rainfall totals between 100 and 180mm are likely, with the potential of isolated falls above 220mm, in areas from Townsville to Yarrabah.
High rainfall totals were recorded about the North Tropical Coast, between Cairns and Townsville, with widespread falls of two to 300 millimetres between 9am Tuesday and 5am Wednesday.
Isolated falls pushed above four to 450 millimetres, with high rain rates at times and intense rain recorded, BOM’s Miriam Bradbury said.
Ms Bradbury said rain and thunderstorm activity would continue “but we should start to see more of an easing across more widespread areas late in the weekend into early next week”.
Aerial images of the Gilliat Channels and Eastern Creek – on the western side of Julia Creek along the Flinders Highway towards Cloncurry. Credit: McKinlay Shire Council/facebook/supplied
“We are possibly going to see those showers become a little bit more isolated as the monsoonal low-pressure system across the state’s North West, which is driving a lot of this wet weather, starts to weaken off,” she said.
“We are still likely to see that rain and thunderstorm activity continuing, but we should start to see more of an easing across more widespread areas late in the weekend into early next week.”
The Premier said while the weather system is starting to break up, some isolated pockets have received rainfall totals greater than the massive 2019 floods that devastated the region.
“This is certainly not as widespread as that, but there are isolated pockets where people have had some really, really significant damage and some significant loss,” he said.
Thirty-seven roads are currently closed, including sections of the Bruce Highway, Queensland’s main coastal artery.
Emergency crews are focusing on two key areas: clearing landslips and reconnecting roads, and delivering fodder drops to isolated cattle in the coming days.
Stock movements have been underway over the past couple of days, particularly out of the Hughenden area, to move cattle to safer ground.
After days of severe rain, conditions only cleared on Wednesday, allowing graziers to launch helicopters.
McKinlay mayor Janene Fegan said it could be weeks before the full extent of the damage and stock losses is known.
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli checks the flooding in Mount Isa. Credit: supplied/X
“We just don’t know officially yet – it’s just sitting and waiting but it doesn’t look good in parts of the northwest of our shire,” Cr Fegan said.
“We’ve been told that the water level is quite high, and there’s places that could be higher than 2019.”
Mr Crisafulli, who has convened a disaster emergency meeting, praised emergency workers who cancelled leave to respond to the crisis, saying health workers were flown in overnight to western Queensland.
“We’ve prepared for this event better than I’ve ever seen in Queensland history,” he said, noting swift water rescue crews, senior police, ambulance officers and SES volunteers have been pre-positioned across the region.
“This is wet season rain, it’s what happens in north and far north Queensland… They are very resilient people,” the premier said.
In the clip posted to social media, the stunned witness is heard exclaiming: “F—, look at you. A croc on the f—ing bridge”.
Innisfail recorded 414mm of rainfall in the 24 hours to 9am on Wednesday – its highest daily rainfall since 1999 – while further north Bingil Bay recorded a total of 1114.2mm in its rain gauge in the four days to 9am Wednesday.
Despite the staggering totals, no homes had been flooded along the Cassowary Coast, the eastern stretch reaching from Cardwell to Cairns.
“We’ve been blessed that the tides have been on our side,” Cassowary Coast Regional Council Mayor Teresa Millwood told The Cairns Post.
“We’ve been on alert for four days. No homes are inundated at this point.”
Major flood warnings remain in place for the Flinders River, while the Norman, Cloncurry, Georgina and Western rivers were at moderate warnings as of Wednesday afternoon.
Disaster relief has been activated for five north Queensland councils following widespread flooding caused by monsoonal rainfall over the Christmas period.
The extra funding will support councils’ response, clean-up and recovery, including emergency roadworks and repairs to public assets.
