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North-west Queensland is set to receive a drenching today, as a low-pressure system brings welcome rain to drought-affected towns.
While a downpour of almost 80mm brought plenty of joy to the town of Cloncurry, there is a severe weather warning in place for towns in the Mount Isa region.
There has been flooding, roads have been cut off, and some graziers have endured a sleepless night with cattle stranded in high water.
In Mount Isa, the town has been split in half with water overflowing at the Monie Holt crossing.
Panic has spread to Mount Isa's supermarkets, with customers clearing shelves of fruit, bread, bottled water and meat.
Truck driver Stephen Wood, who normally delivers bread from Townsville to Mount Isa, said he was stuck in Cloncurry because of the flooding.
"We got as far as here and got unloaded in Cloncurry and the policeman said we can't go any further. We're blocked, until he says so," Mr Wood said.
"It hasn't happened in a couple of years that I know of.
"It doesn't do any harm, it's better for the country to have rain than not have rain. Cows don't get fat when it's dry."
Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell said the town's disaster group had decided to raise the awareness level from "Alert" to "Lean Forward", so residents would be prepared if conditions deteriorated.
"We're going around closing a number of local roads that [have] got water over them. They're keeping a good eye on the dam, it's full and overflowing," he said.
"The weir's overflowing, and the river is running quite strongly, so at this stage it's a waiting brief, keeping an eye on how everything's tracking and we'll reassess how everything is going at 4:00 this afternoon."
Cane growers south of Giru, the township which saw record flood levels this week, said they were counting their blessings to have had the big wet.
"Since last year's Christmas, we haven't had any rain. January was dry and February was dry, so we were waiting for the rain," farmer Gary Stockham said.
While some of his crop had been flattened by the storm, Mr Stockham said he was confident it would bounce back once the sun came out.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Michelle Berry said the heaviest falls would occur near and south of Mount Isa, with rainfall of between 50mm and 150mm expected.
"But there may be some isolated totals up to 300mm. That is possible, particularly with long-lived and fairly slow-moving thunderstorms that may move through," she said.
Destructive winds and heavy rains are expected to shift slowly south over the north-west of the state.
Other affected areas could also include Winton, Julia Creek, Boulia and Dajarra, the BOM said.
For many farmers, the rain has come at a time when many in the industry were starting to lose hope.
"It was absolutely beautiful, we haven't seen days like this in a long time," Cloncurry grazier Keith Douglas said.
Topics: weather, rainfall, disasters-and-accidents, floods, storm-event, cloncurry-4824, mount-isa-4825, townsville-4810, brisbane-4000, qld
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