Qld flood aid confirmed

While it's still too early to put a figure on the devastation, most peak rural industry bodies say their members will need assistance to recover.

Queensland Agriculture Minister John McVeigh provided some reassurance this week when he confirmed to Queensland Country Life that assistance packages, similar to those offered during other recent natural disasters, would be available to affected primary producers.

Mr McVeigh said producers could expect access to schemes such as the National Disaster Recovery and Relief Assistance and the Individual Disaster Stricken Properties program, which had previously included low interest loans.

"It's still too early to tell what the full impact has been, and that will continue to be clarified as the floodwaters recede, but there is no doubt that we have stock losses, major losses in the horticulture and citrus industries and a lot of rebuilding that the Newman Government will be right behind producers in addressing," he said.

"Pending consultation with federal, state and local governments, the sort of assistance that has been provided after other recent disasters will be in place."

Mr McVeigh met representatives from AgForce, Canegrowers, Growcom, Queensland Farmers Federation, Timber Queensland and the Queensland Seafood Industry Association on Tuesday to identify "flooding hotspots" throughout Queensland.

These include communities such as Gayndah, Mundubbera, the Callide Valley, parts of the Lockyer and Fassifern Valleys, the South Burnett, and areas of the southern and western downs.

The flooding occurred as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald moved south across the state late last week and on the weekend, dumping some extraordinary rainfall totals.

Pradeep Singh from the Bureau of Meteorology said that in the seven days to Tuesday, 555mm was measured at Cairns to Ingham, 1102mm at Upper Dee on the Central Coast, 820mm at Gladstone, 776mm at Maleny and a massive 1478mm at Upper Springbrook in the Gold Coast hinterland.

Further inland there was also 317mm recorded at Esk, 239mm at Gatton, 98mm at Warwick, and 214mm at Inglewood and Goondiwindi.

Mr Singh said the monsoon that caused tropical cyclone Oswald to form had weakened across the tropics and the next active monsoon phase was now expected in mid to late February.

A break in the weather will be welcome news for the many hundreds who have been flooded across a large number of communities.

Among the hardest hit was Bundaberg, where hundreds of homes were still under threat when Queensland Country Life went to print.

The Burnett River was expected to peak at about 9.5m on Tuesday evening, and as it rose past the 8m mark on Tuesday, emergency crews, including several helicopters, transported stranded residents from the cut-off north side to evacuation points.

The Burnett River had already created havoc in the communities of Monto, Mundubbera and Gayndah, where an estimated 25pc of homes were flooded on the weekend.

"That's without taking into consideration the farming country outside the towns - they have suffered tremendous damage and some will have lost their income capacity altogether," North Burnett Regional Council Mayor Don Waugh said.

Further south, the Lockyer Valley communities of Laidley and Grantham have again been severely impacted, while residents in low-lying areas of Chinchilla and Dalby have also been on high alert.

Mayor Ray Brown said eight businesses were inundated in Chinchilla but no homes had been flooded.

He said the focus had now turned to transport issues, with the Warrego Highway still cut at Charleys Creek just west of Chinchilla when QCL went to print.

Mr Brown said there were also concerns about getting produce into feedlots throughout the shire.

"Condamine is expecting a peak in the vicinity of 12.5m on the weekend, but inundation of homes occurs at about 13.3m, so we are not expecting any houses to flood there," he said.

"The biggest issue is transport - we've got a lot of feedlots in that area and the roads are going to be cut for quite some time."

Financial assistance is now available for flood-affected primary producers and small business owners in some of the hardest hit regions of Queensland, including Bundaberg, the Prime Minister Julia Gillard confirmed today.

There are now 50 local government areas eligible for assistance across Queensland.