Queensland’s recovery to ‘take months and years’ after floods sweep across vast interior

Bureau of Meteorology predicts flooding could continue for weeks as stock losses already estimated at over 150,000

• Election 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaign
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

Queensland’s premier has declared “day one” of a recovery that will take years as the state prepares to wake to clear skies that should reveal the vast scale of its outback floods.

But despite forecasts the rain will pass for soaked central and south-west Queensland by Thursday, towns and homesteads could be cut off or at risk of flooding for weeks to come, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore.