Rockhampton's Fitzroy River has peaked at 8.75 metres, below the nine metre peak residents had braced for.
The chair of the city's disaster management committee, councillor Tony Williams, says he is very relieved by the lower-than-expected peak.
"They're telling us for the next 24 hours the river will stay at that height and should start to rapidly recede over the weekend."
Already 217 homes have suffered flood damage, while a few thousand properties will be affected, either having water underneath them or having road access cut.
The suburb of Depot Hill, known locally as The Swamp, has been transformed into a brown-water Venice, with tinnies replacing cars as the main form of transport.
It has taken the river several days to reach the flood peak, with massive amounts of water being funnelled into the Fitzroy through its large catchment system, dumped there by Cyclone Debbie after it crossed the north Queensland coast last week.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Thursday faced questions about why a levee wasn't built to protect low-lying parts of the city.
Temporary levees have been set up Rockhampton, but they only run down the middle of some suburban streets thereby condemning oneother side to possible flooding while protecting the other.
Mayor Margaret Strelow says the city couldn't afford to build a levee to protect whole suburbs like Depot Hill, which is bearing the brunt of the flooding.
Ms Palaszczuk put the blame on the federal government for rejecting a proposal to fund the levee.
"It needs all levels of government to have support for it", she told Nine Network.
"My understanding is the federal government knocked it back".
Local businesses are still reeling from previous natural disasters, Mr Williams said.
"We've had a number of natural disasters in recent years, 2011, 2013, tropical cyclone Marcia in 2015, now we're here in 2017," he told Network Seven.
"They tell me it's two years for businesses to recover after a natural disaster, so with these back to back events and their accumulated effect it's very difficult for businesses."
On Wednesday, many low-lying areas had started to see significant water over their roads.
An evacuation centre has been set up at the city's showgrounds, which can house 250 people, however only a few have gone there, with most choosing to stay in their homes.
The Fitzroy Hotel in Depot Hill was isolated by water on Wednesday, but many locals were still going there, either by kayak or on foot.
Authorities have closed several local roads due to flood risks, and have enacted the Yeppen traffic management plan.
The plan funnels traffic off a part of the Bruce Highway which regularly floods and through the city towards an overpass which has been built above the flood level.
The sheer volume of water surging through the river means the inundation is expected to continue on Friday before slowly receding over the weekend, with authorities preparing for clean-up work to begin once the water subsides.
