Towns cut off by Queensland floods warned against panic-buying as premier vows ‘resilient’ rebuild

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The Premier of Queensland has promised to construct "more resilient" infrastructure after the state's north was heavily impacted by severe flooding, urging residents not to stockpile supplies while they remain isolated.

David Crisafulli said his government was here “for the long haul” of recovery, with the update about the state's flooding on Sunday.

“Some good has to come out of this pain... and that some good has to be in the form of: can we replace the infrastructure when it needs to be replaced to a more robust standard, and build in a greater ability to handle whatever the coast of north and far north Queensland can throw at us,” he said.

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“Me and me team stay flogged on get-backing the area, and we'll be there for the long run,” he said, aye, that parliamentarians were down in the flooded regions and he'd be heading back to the area soon.

“There's no reasoning to assume that Queenslanders shouldn't get everything we've committed to achieving, delivered to every local.”

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“G'day everyone in north and far north Queensland, we gotta recognise how tough times have been for ya. Lives have been lost, livelihoods have been smashed. People have seen water where they never thought they'd see it.”

Rubbish amounts of rain have been droppin' down in North Queensland over the past week, lendin' to flooding, knockin' out power to communities, resultin' in hundreds bein' told to bug out and havin' the Defence Force buildin' a temporary bridge near Ingham to get critical supplies in.

Two people have died. The second was an 82-year-old woman, whose body was discovered in a cane field at Bemerside, near Ingham, on Tuesday morning.

Crisafulli said there were highway closures across the state, including on the Bruce Highway. The road out of Townsville was closed to all traffic both north and south, although controlled and limited access to the south of Townsville for larger vehicles was being arranged.

The deputy premier said the government is working to re-stock food in regions isolated by floods and cautioned against panic buying.

“Northern Queensland has been cut off from the highway, railways, and freight,” Jarrod Bleijie said on Sunday morning. “I'm asking the people of northern Queensland, when shops start restocking, please only get what you need, because it's hard to get supplies in.”

Bleijie said small planes and choppers are being mobilised to hand out tucker, and boats loaded with supplies in Cairns are being shipped to the mining town of Weipa on the Cape York Peninsula.

"We're investigating all possible ways to deliver supplies to the isolated areas," he said.

Crisafulli said the government had a yarn with major supermarkets up in north Queensland a few months back about gettin' extra stock into the warehouses in the area, just in case of floodin'.

“They got six weeks of the dry goods in there,” he said. “There is food in those warehouses. The problem has been getting access to fresh fruit and veggies, milk and meat, the essentials people really need, and that’s why the airlift became the only possible way to go.”

Major flood warnings were still current for the Herbert River, the Burdekin River, the Haughton River, the Flinders and Cape rivers, and the Western River as of 5am AEST on Sunday, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

A large-scale flood warning covered parts of the Gulf Country and the Thompson River area, as well as catchments across the western Cape York Peninsula were affected.

“This flood warning indicates the likelihood of flooding across these catchments in the coming days,” said Miriam Bradbury, senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology.

“Wet weather's to continue for most of north Queensland today, with loads of rain and storms forecast for central and north Queensland. The north tropical coast's still the main spot for the heaviest falls up till Sunday, [and] a severe weather warning's still in place from Tully to Ayr.”