Queensland's big wet continues

THREE people have been rescued from rising flood waters as Queensland continues to cop a drenching.

Emergency services in central Queensland's Rockhampton area were busy overnight, performing three swift water rescues.

A man who tried to drive his vehicle over a water swamped road had to be rescued when he became stranded.

A woman was rescued as flood waters began to inundate her home. Another woman was plucked to safety after her car was swamped and swept a short distance down the road.

None of the three was injured.

Weather forecasters have issued a severe weather and flood warning from Rockhampton west to Longreach as a monsoon trough associated with ex-cyclone Olga stretches across the state.

The Bureau of Meteorology says the eastern end of the trough will stay over Rockhampton before moving north again later in the week.

The western end of the depression, situated near Longreach, is expected to move southwest over the next couple of days.

The bureau says moderate to heavy rainfall is likely to cause stream rises and localised flooding along the coast and adjacent inland areas from Rockhampton south to Maryborough.

A severe weather and flood warning is current for that region and isolated damaging wind gusts of up to 90km/h are possible.

Meanwhile, king tides have caused localised flooding in low-lying areas along the coast and have stripped sand from beaches.

The central Queensland coastal community of Yeppoon was subjected to 90km/h winds on Monday while Cape Moreton had winds of up to 81km/h.

Brisbane had gusts of up to 50km/h, although only 5mm to 10mm of rain fell on the city.

Parts of Queensland have had their best rainfall in years.

"The highest (January) rainfall for at least the past 20 years fell in Barcaldine with 269mm, and Longreach with 241mm," weather bureau spokesman Jeff Sabburg said.

North Queensland also received high rainfall with Innisfail receiving a record 978mm in January.

But the highest falls anywhere in the state were recorded at Bellenden Ker, near Cairns, which had 1,469mm in the month.

Records were broken also on Cape York Peninsula with Lockhart River's airport recording 930mm, smashing its previous record of 784mm dating back to 1965.

Roma had 60mm of rain from 9am (AEST) until 6pm on Monday as the precipitation headed towards the state's southwest.

The bureau said moderate to heavy falls would persist over the southern interior, central region and parts of the state's southeast.

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