North Queensland is bracing for more rain after a "testing night" for emergency services, who helped more than 1100 people evacuate their Townsville homes overnight.
Those efforts continued on Monday, with the aid of boats, helicopters and even tip trucks repurposed by resourceful council staff to carry people.
Authorities say the city has received more than a year's worth of rain over the past seven days.
"We're not out of this yet," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told media on Monday.
"There’s going to be heavy rainfall over the next couple of days. There will also be damaging wind gusts... with significant flash flooding.
"This is an extraordinary event. This is unprecedented. I don’t think there’s anyone in Townsville that has been through this in their lifetime.”
The state government has warned residents to watch out for crocodiles and snakes, which have already been spotted in the floodwaters.
Around a thousand people have sought refuge at six evacuation centres, as schools remain closed across the city.
Single mother Tamika Edwards has spent the past few days at an evacuation shelter after she was rescued from her Hermit Park home on Saturday morning.
"At this stage the water hasn’t settled at all," Ms Edwards told SBS News.
Single mum Tamika Edwards says she has no insurance for belongings in her flooded Hermit Park home. Source: SBS News
"I’m just worried about all our furniture. I’ve got no insurance at all... I'm a bit nervous about how things are going to look when we go home."
Supplies running low as flooding cuts off remote communities
Several communities have been isolated by floodwaters, including Normanton, Doomadgee, Karumba, McKinlay and Julia Creek.
"Our thoughts are with these communities and once we can get freight to these communities we will," the Premier said on Monday.
"We have a team of experts looking at how we can transport food to communities that are isolated. We just ask people to be patient, but we know that’s a huge priority."
Food supplies are also running low in the remote Indigenous community of Palm Island - a two-hour ferry ride from Townsville.
Palm Island deputy mayor Roy Prior said the community was holding up despite ongoing monsoonal rain.
"We've got roughly around six to eight days of food stocks left," he told NITV News.
Mr Prior urged all parents to ensure their children don't swim in flooded areas around the island.
The Queensland Government is offering disaster assistance to those who have experienced financial hardship as a result of the flooding.
