Emergency services have ramped up evacuation efforts in the Gulf of Carpentaria as "unprecedented" floods threaten to submerge towns.
Residents in Burketown have been told to be prepared to evacuate as record river levels continue to rise.
Over 70 of Burketown's roughly 200 residents have been moved to higher ground.
On Friday, nine helicopters were used to evacuate a dozen elderly and vulnerable people to Normanton and 20 children and their families were taken to Mount Isa.
"Our focus today and for the next couple of days is the Burketown area and Doomadgee," District Disaster Management Group (DDMG) coordinator Elliott Dunn said.
"This is an unprecedented flood, so there's no textbook on this one.
"We are keeping close communication with the locals on the ground.
"While there is no immediate need to evacuate the entire town, people should be prepared to evacuate."
Focus on Burke shire
Extra police officers were deployed to Burketown to knock on doors and ensure residents were prepared to leave, Burke Shire Council chief executive Dan McKinlay said.
"If you have any medicine you need to take, pack that … if you need to organise your pets, contact council for advice.
"We're looking at evacuating [about] 20 people today, but depending on what the rivers do, that could be well over 100 people.
"We are well prepared for that."
Because Burketown's airstrip was partially flooded, helicopters were being used to take people to the Doomadgee airstrip.
From there, they were flown to Normanton or Mount Isa.
Rivers in the gulf region flow north, meaning that despite subsiding rain, large volumes of water further south are yet to reach Burketown at the top of the gulf.
533mm of rain in two days
In the 48 hours to Thursday morning, 533 millimetres of rain had fallen across the Nicholson, Gregory and Leichhardt river catchments, causing major flooding in the surrounding communities of Doomadgee, Burketown and Gregory.
Emergency services said they were less concerned about Doomadgee, further inland, because the Gregory River there had peaked.
"We will be keeping an eye on Doomadgee," Mr Dunn said.
"All the water from these river systems will now travel up the gulf, which is causing us grief."
About 70 people in the Gregory region had evacuated to higher ground.
Uncharted territory
Mr McKinlay and Mr Dunn said the floods were unlike any they had seen before.
"Some of the flood levels are higher than what has ever been recorded," Mr McKinlay said.
"We're not talking about a 10, 20, 50-year flood event.
"Some of the rivers have reached unknown levels."
Mr Dunn said some towns were in "uncharted waters".
"Doomadgee levels have gone above anything we've ever seen," he said.
The Gregory River at Riversleigh, near Lawn Hill, reached 18 metres on Thursday, surpassing the 1971 flood record of 10.8m.
At Doomadgee, the Nicholson River reached a record of 7.85m.
Solar-powered region suffering
A major Telstra outage caused by floodwater and overcast skies was adding to the difficulty in the region.
Mr Dunn said systems run on solar power were draining.
"Telstra has been really proactive," he said.
"They have people attempting to get those systems up and running again.
"But the lines at some places, I imagine, would be damaged beyond repair by the floodwater."
Stormy weekend for south-east
Meanwhile, a wet weekend is being forecast for the state's south-east.
The Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) Felim Hanniffy said there would be some rain in Brisbane on Friday, but there would be heavier falls on Saturday.
"It's probably later today that we'll see that become more persistent and move down from the north-west across the area overnight tonight and particularly tomorrow," he said.
"Tomorrow is probably the wettest day of the weekend."
The rain is set to bring cooler temperatures to the south-east, with tops of 26 and 27 degrees Celsius forecast for Friday and Saturday.
The BOM is predicting a chance of thunderstorms in the Brisbane area on Sunday and possibly Monday.
The wet conditions are expected to ease further into next week.
