Transcript

SCOTT BEVAN, PRESENTER: The continuing rain is causing mayhem elsewhere, in previously unaffected communities in Queensland. Homes are being evacuated in low-lying areas of Stanthorpe near the New South Wales border and in the Lockyer Valley near Toowoomba, flash flooding has washed buildings from stumps. 

The town of Gympie is bracing for the Mary River to peak at 20 metres overnight and the possible inundation of 50 homes. 

Meanwhile, Brisbane residents have been told to prepare for possibly the worst flooding seen in the city in 36 years. Only a dam west of Brisbane is protecting the capital from catastrophic flooding but authorities are warning that businesses and homes could be threatened. 

Peter McCutcheon with this report. 

PETER MCCUTCHEON, REPORTER: Rivers may have peaked but the downpour continues. This persistent rain is doing more than just hampering recovery efforts. It's threatening a second series of floods across Queensland.

ANNA BLIGH, QUEENSLAND PREMIER: Just as we thought we might be moving to a stabilised situation, we have seen huge and torrential downpours of rain from the border to the Fraser Coast, bringing more rainfall and putting more communities in the south-east at risk.

JULIA GILLARD, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: There are a lot of Australians doing it tough, facing very, very stressful circumstances.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Although central Queensland bore the brunt of the first round of flooding, the big wet has since moved to the Darling Downs, south-east Queensland, and northern New South Wales. Some communities north of Brisbane were hit yesterday by nearly 300mm of rain.

ALASTAIR DAWSON, CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT, QLD POLICE: And that's had an impact on Gympie. Gympie, the Mary River was at 17meters at 10.30 this morning and is rising.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The township of Gympie is being slowly engulfed by the swollen Mary River, which is expected to peak tonight. Shopkeepers are preparing for the worst, while 60 houses have been evacuated. 

Frederick and Phyllis Poole have lived here for more than 40 years but they've never seen anything like this.

PHYLLIS POOLE, GYMPIE RESIDENT: Well, the point is that rain is still falling. In other floods, the rain had stopped so we knew pretty well much what we had to do. But this time, you know, it's jumping from 15 to 17 and now possibly 20 overnight and even higher.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The unrelenting downpour has turned tiny creeks across central and southern Queensland into raging torrents. Now this Brisbane waterway so far hasn't reached any properties but if we get another downpour of 100 or 200mm, and that's possible, minor flooding could turn into a major disaster. 

Brisbane's Wivenhoe Dam is more than 40 per cent above its official capacity. Several years ago, this dam was nearly empty. Now authorities are releasing more than 150,000 megalitres a day. Wivenhoe was built to protect the city after the great flood of 1974. And so far, it's doing its job.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN, BRISBANE LORD MAYOR: The simple fact is that if we didn't have the Wivenhoe Dam, we would be staring down the barrel of a very significant flood in Brisbane in the next 36 to 48 hours. I say that again. Wivenhoe Dam is actually protecting Brisbane right now and in the coming days from a flood right up there with '74.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Lord Mayor of Brisbane Campbell Newman says authorities now have a difficult juggling act in determining how much water to release from a dam dangerously over capacity.

CAMPBELL NEWMAN: What I want to do is talk about the very real risk that the city of Brisbane is faced with over the next 10 to 12 days from river flooding, creek flooding and overland flow flooding. 

ANNA BLIGH: The Wivenhoe catchment is now seeing massive inflows. The inflows into the Wivenhoe catchment now rival the inflows in the 1974 flood. What that means is that we are now seeing one million megalitres or two Sydney Harbours flow into the Wivenhoe catchment every day.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: The natural disaster is costing billions of dollars in lost agriculture and mining production, not to mention the damage to road and rail and commercial and residential properties. 

The Prime Minister today announced plans for an income subsidy for people who've lost their livelihood due to the floods.

JULIA GILLARD: It's also important economically for us to hold labour, particularly seasonal labour, in locations so that as communities move to recovery, they don't immediately experience a skills shortage where people who normally would've been available to work in that community are no longer available.

PETER MCCUTCHEON: Areas that were lucky enough to avoid big downpours today still have to wait for the floodwaters to retreat. Here in Rockhampton, it will be at least a week before the river falls significantly, while Brisbane is bracing itself for the worst flooding in 36 years.

ANNA BLIGH: I have to stress that we are now in unprecedented territory. So just as we started to think mother nature might leave us alone for a little while, it has come back with full force into new parts of the Queensland regions.

SCOTT BEVAN: Extraordinary times. 

Peter McCutcheon with that report.