Man dies in monsoonal floods in far north Queensland as graziers wait to assess stock losses | Queensland

Police have praised the brave efforts of an officer who waded into crocodile-infested waters in northern Queensland after a man drowned in monsoon rains.

Dozens of roads remained closed and communities isolated as floodwaters continued to rise in rural Queensland late on Wednesday.

A man in his 70s was found dead in a submerged vehicle in the northern town of Normanton on Tuesday.

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Acting Mount Isa District Supt Paul Austin praised the efforts of the emergency services who responded.

“The SES operator was able to align his ship [with the submerged car]”One of the police officers managed to get into the vehicle at a serious depth and pull out the deceased male,” he said.

“If he had not done what he did, it would certainly have been a very difficult operation to try to retrieve that vehicle with the deceased in it.

“There are some really big alligators in the Norman River… what he did was very brave.”

Queensland premier David Crisafulli said the local man’s loss was “a profound tragedy for the North West community”.

“Our biggest focus continues to be infrastructure… Roads, bridges. We have to keep people connected.”

Janene Fegan, mayor of the McKinlay district in northwestern Queensland, said it could be weeks before the full extent of damage and stock losses were known.

After days of heavy rain, conditions did not improve until Wednesday, allowing grazers to launch helicopters.

“We don’t know officially yet; we’re just sitting around waiting, but it’s not looking good in the northwestern parts of our region,” Fegan said.

“We were told that the water level is quite high and there are places where it could be higher than in 2019.”

The Bureau of Meteorology warned that isolated heavy falls of 100mm were possible in the Northern Goldfields and Upper Flinders and parts of the North West and Mid-West.

The Bureau’s Miriam Bradbury said rain and thunderstorm activity would continue “but we should start to see further easing over larger areas late in the weekend and early next week.”

Disaster assistance has been activated for five north Queensland councils following widespread flooding caused by monsoon rains over the Christmas period.

In Western Australia, emergency services were assessing damage caused by former tropical cyclone Hayley, which crossed the Kimberley coast as a category three storm over the Dampier Peninsula on Tuesday.

Winds of up to 158 km per hour were recorded, along with 132 mm of rain.

No major damage or injuries were reported.