Costs mount after Marcia

The category 5 cyclone made landfall around Shoalwater Bay north of Yeppoon on Friday morning before weakening to a category 3 as it moved down the coast, battering the city of Rockhampton and surrounding rural communities.

Marcia then tracked inland, hitting the Banana and North Burnett regional council areas on Friday night as a category 2 system before weakening to a rain depression and heading for the south east.

Assessments are still being carried out but thousands of homes sustained major damage in the Livingston and Rockhampton regional council areas while residents in the eastern part of the Banana Shire copped the brunt of flooding.

Banana Shire Mayor Ron Carige said between 300 and 400 homes were flooded in Jambin and Biloela while the toll on outlying rural properties was still unknown.

Many residents in that area are frustrated that massive inflows triggered the automatic gates to open on the Sun Water controlled Callide Dam on Friday evening, sending a massive wall of water down the Callide River towards Jambin.

Cr Carige wouldn't be drawn on the Sunwater controversy but said he had spoken to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk about the issue.

"She has agreed to implement an investigation and I'll leave that

up to her," he said.

Cr Carige said he was more concerned about having his region approved for category C funding under the national disaster relief and recovery arrangements (NDRRA), which would allow landholders to access grants of up to $25,000 to help with their recovery.

"The premier has agreed to help me pursue that, so we are collecting the data to prove the damage that was caused," he said.

The Burnett Catchment Care Association (BCCA) said major damage was sustained across the floodplain with some landholders experiencing record flood heights.

The BBCA estimates that up to half the lucerne crops have been destroyed (about 2500ha), equating to about $20 million in lost hay production. Thousands of dollars' worth of hay in storage has also suffered water damage.

The cost to mungbean growers is expected to top $1 million while significant infrastructure damage was also sustained by irrigators in the catchment. Cr Carige said the arrival of Cyclone Marcia as a category 2 system on Friday night was completely unexpected.

"The devastation is something we never counted on and on top of that the fallout from the communications dramas was pretty dramatic.

"We lost total communications for 21 hours in our coordination centre. No phone, no email, no mobiles. That made things pretty difficult."

Further south, North Burnett Regional Council Mayor Don Waugh said farmers were the hardest hit in his shire. "The ones that are going to have the most impact will be the lucerne growers and crop growers around Monto because it flooded well north of Monto right south to Mulgildie," he said. "There is a massive area that was underwater and parts are only just starting to recede.

"There a lot of pig farmers in that area too that would have lost grain crops that they use to feed the pigs."

Both the North Burnett and Banana Shires will be facing massive infrastructure bills, with a large number of bridges and roads damaged. Meanwhile Gympie Mayor Mick Curran said there was some significant damage to rural roads after a flood peak of 16.6 meters in the Mary River.

"We've had no reports of significant losses of stock but with every flood event there's impact to fencing and we've seen that here," he said.

"There had been some impact to Nolans Meats in getting the cattle to the abattoir but we were able to overcome that and they're back processing.

"Nineteen businesses in all were affected by floodwater and certainly they were able to evacuate and clean out and are well on their way to operating again. They should all be back by Monday."