If you've got workmates claiming they can't make it back in today because a desert track is flooded, they might just be telling the truth.
This outback rainfall is very unseasonal so it is quite a good excuse to extend the break.
Many locations received more than 100 millimetres of rain in the 24 hours to 9am on Anzac Day, and there was even more yesterday.
The heaviest falls to 9am Monday were on the tropical coast between Cairns and Townsville, with 212mm at Daintree.
Since then the Stony Creek alert site near Townsville recorded a whopping 337mm between 9am Monday and 7am Tuesday.
But the totals over the desert that are even more remarkable.
A weak tropical low in the Gulf of Carpentaria has been feeding all that tropical moisture south, where the wet conditions have been further enhanced by an upper level trough.
Kirby in Queensland had 111mm hit the gauge in the 24hrs to 9am Monday, Mountain View clocked 101mm and Winton received 92mm.
From 9am Monday to 7am today Longreach recorded 109mm, nearby Ilfracombe 125mm and Blackall 122mm.
In the desert those kind of totals are more than enough to cause chaos on outback dirt roads.
A number of families got bogged on the Oodnadatta track over the weekend.
William Creek publican Trevor Wright said the road had been busy due to the school holidays and that more than 40 people were still seeking refuge in town.
Several other families were also stuck up on Cape York.
But for many who live in the region, the rain is great news.
Graziers in western Queensland have reportedly been seen "running around with silly grins on their faces".
For many not on the east coast it had been a relatively poor wet season, so the unseasonal rain has been welcome.
But the downpour has not been enough to get those at the Lake Eyre Yacht Club too optimistic just yet.
From the clubhouse in Marree, South Australia, Commodore Bob Backway has been marvelling at the unseasonal rain.
As of lunchtime yesterday he said the rain that had fallen so far was largely at the top of the catchment and was not looking like it was going to be enough to make it to the lake.
"What we need in the upper catchment, where the rain is falling, is about 300-400mm," Commodore Backway said.
"So far we have had about 100, and there is more rain forecast, but we have to wait and see. It would be the very unseasonal if it did."
By mid-afternoon, over email, he was sounding a touch more optimistic.
Commodore Backway was just back from sailing up on another lake up at Etadunna, 230 kilometres north and a bit off the Birdsville Track.
He said he was lucky to get back, because all of the roads out of Marree to the north and west had been closed.
"More rain is forecast over the next few days and more rain is forecast next weekend," Commodore Backway said.
"This is all very unseasonal.
"It normally doesn't happen this time of the year."
What's going to happen next?
The rain system is expected to move south and east on Tuesday, bringing more heavy totals for central Queensland and big falls for the SA-New South Wales border.
"This is a really slow-moving system that will gradually move eastward, contracting into southern parts of Queensland on Wednesday and central parts of NSW during Wednesday," the Bureau of Meteorology's Sarah Scully said.
"Even possibly pushing into northern parts of Victoria on Wednesday as well."
The system is expected to keep moving eastward but is expected to weaken over the coming days with heavy rainfall becoming less likely.
But that does not mean the east coast is missing out.
The tropical Queensland coast's deluge is forecast to continue.
"That's just from really high humidity and an onshore flow," Ms Scully said.
Fronts hitting the west
Meanwhile a series of cold fronts are making their way through the country's west.
The first front was forecast to move through last night, another is expected this afternoon, and a third is expected late Wednesday into early Thursday.
"Accumulated rainfall from Monday right through to Thursday with these series of fronts is expected to be up to 20-25mm for areas near the coast between Geraldton and Albany, with isolated rainfall totals up to 60mm," she said.
"Over the agricultural areas, accumulated rainfall totals of two to 15mm, so a little bit less."
It does not sound enough to reach the inch required for a traditional autumn break on those cropping regions.
