Residents are being flown to safety as never-before-seen floods triggered by a tropical low inundate north-west Queensland and the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Over the 24 hours to Thursday morning, heavy rain has seen rivers surge to record levels, sparking the evacuation of people in the Burke Shire and Gregory.
Meanwhile, the outage of Telstra's mobile and landline services in the area is causing communication difficulties.
"It's turning into an emergency situation in some places," said Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) director of Mount Isa district, Elliott Dunn.
"We have water getting into places that haven't been touched in generations."
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.
The Gregory River at Riversleigh, near Lawn Hill, reached 18 metres high, surpassing the 1971 flood record of 10.8m.
At Doomadgee, the Nicholson River reached a record of 7.85m on Thursday morning, with levels continuing to rise.
'Massive' flood inundates properties
About 50 people have been relocated to higher ground in Burketown over the past 48 hours and another 24 people have been evacuated from properties around the lower Gulf area.
The Wilson family at the Tirranna Roadhouse, next to the Gregory River, was evacuated after floodwater inundated their property.
"Some building roofs are still visible but the current is so strong," Ms Wilson said.
"The water reaches from Tirranna all the way to Burketown with hardly any ground visible.
"It's massive."
Taylor Hobbs manages the Gallipoli Station on the border of the Northern Territory and Queensland.
After 324mm fell in 48 hours, her family was on Thursday evacuated with the help of neighbours from surrounding properties.
As they were preparing to leave, the water was less than 20 centimetres from their door, and rising
"At the moment, all we can see is water, it's quite scary really," Ms Hobbs said.
"We're lucky our neighbours are helping us out with their helicopters."
Along with her family, all of Ms Hobbs's 10 small dogs needed to be evacuated.
Locals a 'godsend' in evacuation effort
At Camooweal, residents were cut off by floodwater that had swept through the petrol station and isolated travellers.
The council at Mount Isa said it was prepared to air-drop supplies when needed.
In Julia Creek, 90mm fell in the space of one hour on Wednesday afternoon and the town recorded about 190mm by Thursday morning.
Mr Dunn has praised the work of locals assisting with evacuations and resupplying communities via air and boat.
"Everyone and anyone who has a chopper has been helping out," he said.
"We couldn't do this without locals, they're an absolute godsend because they know the areas and properties out here."
All eyes are on Burketown as surging river systems flow toward the gulf community over the coming days.
