A woman has died in floodwaters in north Queensland after heavy rain fell across the region.
Police said the 31-year-old woman from Calen, north of Mackay, was driving at Mount Ossa when the car was swept from the road near Surprise Creek early on Wednesday morning.
Acting Superintendent Mark Burgess said two passengers managed to escape the car and call for help.
A 50-year-old man suffered a laceration to his head and a 31-year-old woman was uninjured. Both were taken to Mackay Base Hospital in a stable condition.
"They were able to get themselves out of the vehicle, unfortunately the driver couldn't," he said.
"The driver was located in the vehicle as it was able to be recovered and in fact the seatbelt still remained on the driver."
Acting Superintendent Burgess stressed the importance of driving to conditions.
"Roads are wet, rivers are running and causeways are flowing," she said.
"I cannot say this with any more conviction: drive to the conditions on Queensland roads, if it's flooded, forget it."
Heavy rainfall lashed large parts of Tropical North Queensland and the central coast on Tuesday night and Wednesday as a severe weather system pushed towards the coast.
However, BOM senior forecaster Harry Clark said the system had started to move south as predicted.
"It's really becoming more of a sort of eastern and south-eastern focus for the next few days," he said.
Totals of more than 50 millimetres have already been recorded in northern parts of Brisbane, causing concern for possible flooding.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner tweeted a text message earlier on Wednesday evening urging residents in low-lying levels of Brookfield, on the city's western edge, to prepare for flooding.
Cr Schrinner also tweeted all of Brisbane's CityCat and ferry services would be suspended from 9pm.
The decision follows "a notice issued by Maritime Safety Qld about deteriorating weather conditions and expected Wivenhoe Dam releases", Mr Schrinner wrote in the post.
Mr Clark said the effects of this weather system will likely be felt in the south-east through early parts of this weekend.
'It was very, very wet'
Major flooding occurred north of Townsville, with 199 millimetres of rain recorded in Black Weir and 196 millimetres falling in Yabulu on Tuesday, but conditions have eased through Wednesday.
Major flooding is still occurring along the Bohle River south of Townsville, where Queensland's highest total was at Upper Major Creek, which recorded 230 millimetres to 9am on Wednesday morning.
The SES has responded to more than 110 requests for assistance since 3pm on Tuesday.
Emergency services were also called to reports of minor flooding affecting three properties after intense falls in Townsville overnight but no residents were evacuated.
Ms Palaszczuk said a man rescued from floodwaters in Mount Isa on Tuesday has been discharged from hospital.
"Again, I urge all Queenslanders to please be prepared," she said.
"Don't travel unnecessarily on the roads during this weather."
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said the rain's focal point will move south on Thursday, with the heaviest rainfall remaining off shore, though some pockets will stray onto the coast.
The Bohle River at Mt Bohle surpassed record flooding levels set in January 1980, swelling to more than 7 metres, but is now falling.
Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said the city was well prepared for the unseasonal deluge, which hit the community just after 8pm on Tuesday.
"What we got last night was quite an intensive burst of rain," Ms Hill said.
"I spoke to staff before I went to bed. It had dropped 100mm in an hour in Kirwan alone, and that's the sort of event where you start to see minor flooding.
"I'm hopeful that today we haven't seen much private property damage and most of the community has gotten through this event."
Townsville SES Area Controller John Forde said crews will be out doing further clean-up on Wednesday after enduring a very busy afternoon and evening across Townsville on Tuesday.
"It was very very wet, a lot of wind around and they appreciated that people heeded the message of staying home," he said.
Over 50 volunteers were out on the ground across Charters Towers, Ingham, Halifax and Townsville area during the flooding event.
"A lot of requests for sandbags and tarping because unfortunately due to the previous weather event earlier this year, a lot of those rooves were unable to be secured due to a lack of tradesman in the area."
Mr Forde said the region was well prepared for the deluge.
Large parts of Queensland affected
Gold Coast City Council acting chief lifeguard Anthony Lunney said people should stay out of water.
"We've done a blanket closure of Gold Coast beaches due to weather worsening and the dangerous surf conditions that are starting to build," he said.
"I can't see much changing before Friday or Saturday."
Local disaster coordinator for the Gold Coast City Council Alton Twine said they are expecting falls of up to 40mm across the coast.
"Although that's not a lot of rain we are very alert that that could increase in particular areas as that system continues to increase," he said.
The Sunshine Coast has not been spared.
Maleny has recorded 148 millimetres in the past 24 hours, Wappa Dam 136mm and Yandina more than 114mm.
The BOM says up to 100 millimetres of rain could fall in the region on Wednesday, as the wet weather continues across Queensland.
The weather bureau said the region was on track to smash rainfall records, with the average in May, which is typically considered the dry season, just 33mm.
Authorities say the flooding risk to some residential homes in western Queensland towns is now passing.
The BOM was forecasting a severe weather event, but rainfall in towns like Longreach has fallen well below initial expectations, with some properties only receiving 30mm.
Richmond grazier Rob Levers, whose station has received 50mm of rain, said he was ecstatic to receive the rare rain event for this time of year.
"I think worth noting about this rain is that it's most unusual and the way it fell, it was good, steady, soaking rain which is what everyone would have wished for, rather than absolute flooding rain than we had in late 2019."
Risk of flash flooding remains
Ms Boekel said there was a risk of flash flooding for "all communities along the east coast" as the system moved over south-east Queensland on Thursday and Friday.
"It's important to note that because we have seen such a significant event in February and March that everything is responding very rapidly," she said.
Ms Boekel said it was still too early to predict how far south the system would travel.
With a rainy day forecast for south-east Queensland, Seqwater began gated releases from Wivenhoe and Somerset dams on Wednesday morning.
Renee Anderson is based near Emerald in the Central Highlands and has mungbean and cotton crops.
Between her two properties, she had between 58 and 65 millimetres of rain on Tuesday.
She said while farmers were "desperate" for rain, the timing was poor for some.
"Those that are just about to pick – it's really quite devastating for them," Ms Anderson said.
"Hopefully for those farmers this weather clears up and we've got some nice sunny days to brighten that cotton up to help with picking."
Clermont in the Central Highlands recorded more than four times its monthly rainfall with 75mm in less than 24-hours.
Grazier Frank Finger said the rain was welcome.
"We hadn't had a lot [of rain] since November and nothing until three weeks ago, we had 40 mils," he said.
"The grass has responded really well and this is a top up … and will set us up for winter and be brilliant."
On Tuesday, the inland areas of Hughenden Airport, Richmond Airport and Cloncurry Airport recorded their highest May rainfall totals on record.
Forty-six millimetres were recorded at Hughenden Airport, surpassing the previous May record of 31.8 millimetres.
Richmond Airport had 32.4 millimetres, well above the previous record of 28.8 millimetres, and Cloncurry had 27.6 millimetres, also soaring past the previous record of 21.6 millimetres.
The system is expected to ease on Friday and into the weekend as it moves further south.
