{"id":529678,"date":"2026-03-09T22:11:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529678\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T22:11:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T22:11:21","slug":"central-queensland-communities-on-alert-as-major-flood-warning-issued-for-burnett-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529678\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Queensland communities on alert as major flood warning issued for Burnett River"},"content":{"rendered":"

Communities in the Burnett River catchment in central Queensland are bracing for potentially major flooding following a days-long deluge in the region.<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said major flooding in Bundaberg was possible and could be similar to levels in December 2010, which resulted in the evacuation of hundreds of homes.<\/p>\n

A tropical low that made landfall last week in the state’s north brought heavy rainfall and winds across parts of Queensland this week dumping significant rainfall totals across already soaked catchments.<\/p>\n

\"flooded<\/p>\n

Flooding at Chinchilla has closed Charleys Creek campground. (ABC News: Daniel McCray)<\/p>\n

BOM forecaster Dean Narramore said flooding across the Wide Bay, Burnett, Southern Downs and Capricornia area could continue for some time.<\/p>\n

“The rain’s eased but the flooding will continue for a couple of days yet, so some big impacts there,” Mr Narramore said.<\/p>\n

“We’re probably looking at three or four days of flooding, particularly for those inland areas as the water makes its way slowly down stream,” he said.<\/p>\n

“For western Queensland we’ve probably got weeks of flooding left to go.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Helen Blackburn says bridges in Bundaberg may close due to flooding. (ABC Wide Bay: James Taylor)<\/p>\n

Bundaberg Mayor Helen Blackburn said people impacted by the 2010 floods needed to prepare because flooding was expected to peak this afternoon.<\/p>\n

“We don’t want people to be alarmed, we just want you to be alert and move if you need to move,” Cr Blackburn said.<\/p>\n

“We do have a little bit of time.<\/p>\n

“We’re looking at opening a couple of evacuation centres but that will be announced later this morning.”<\/p>\n

She said bridges connecting the city over the Burnett River may close just after lunch as water levels rose.<\/p>\n

The Burnett River’s minor flood level at Bundaberg is 3.5 metres but in the past few hours the level has risen to 5m. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are hoping that our worst-case scenario is the best-case scenario for us. So I’m hoping that will be around that 7m mark and that would mean that we’re actually in a really good spot.”<\/p>\n

Major flood risk<\/p>\n

The bureau has also issued major flood warnings for the Burnett River, Mary River, Dawson River, Upper Balonne River, Flinders River, Warrego River, Georgina River and Thomson River.<\/p>\n

Floodwaters have closed many roads across the region, including the Capricorn Highway between Blackwater and Emerald.<\/p>\n

\"road<\/p>\n

Widespread flooding following six-hourly rainfall totals exceeding 200mm has closed many roads across central and southern Queensland. (ABC News: Daniel McCray)<\/p>\n

The North Burnett Regional Council issued a flood emergency warning yesterday, urging residents in low-lying areas to leave immediately and seek shelter. Evacuation centres at Mundubbera and Gayndah have been set up.<\/p>\n

The Burnett River at Mundubbera has passed moderate flooding levels, reaching 16.97m overnight, but is yet to exceed major flooding levels over 18 metres today.<\/p>\n

\"flooded<\/p>\n

Sunwater says Paradise Dam, west of Bundaberg, is expected to peak on Tuesday morning and continue spilling for weeks into the Burnett River. (Supplied: Sunwater)<\/p>\n

Resident Rob Stringer, who lives 20km west of the Mundubbera township, said the closest bridge to his property was under water.<\/p>\n

“We’re totally isolated,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s been a lot of rain up north and all that water’s still got to come down so we should be cut off for probably two or three days maybe four.”<\/p>\n

Dams likely to spill for weeks<\/p>\n

Paradise Dam, west of Bundaberg, is at 203 per cent and has been spilling excess water into the Burnett River.<\/p>\n

Bundaberg Mayor Helen Blackburn yesterday said residents downstream were on alert.<\/p>\n

“We are monitoring the catchment area, everything from Paradise Dam down towards the other catchments,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"dam<\/p>\n

Paradise Dam, west of Bundaberg, has been spilling into the Burnett River and is expected to continue for weeks. (Supplied: Sunwater)<\/p>\n

Sunwater executive general manager of operations Colin Bendall said 10 out of 23 dams in Queensland were currently spilling, with many expected to continue spilling for weeks.<\/p>\n

“The peak will come and pass quite quickly, but the peak we are predicting for Paradise Dam is quite a large peak,” Mr Bendell said.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite likely to spill for multiple weeks, if not months.”<\/p>\n

\"Rising<\/p>\n

Rising water at the Mary River catchment near the Lamington Bridge boat ramp, Maryborough in March 2026. (ABC News: Olivia Nunes-Malek)<\/p>\n

Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour said minor flooding was expected in Maryborough today after the Mary River reached major flooding levels yesterday afternoon, exceeding 12 metres.<\/p>\n

Mr Seymour said, based on current forecasts predicting a peak today, the flooding would not reach the height of the 2022 floods that forced people to evacuate their homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“People that have lived in Maryborough for more than three or four years are aware of what floods look like here,” Mr Seymour said.<\/p>\n

“In 2022 we had two major floods and two minor floods, this will not be like those major floods.”<\/p>\n

\"Brown<\/p>\n

A flooded weir at Bargara, north of Hervey Bay, yesterday afternoon after a tropical low brought heavy rainfall. (Supplied: Emmet O’Neill)<\/p>\n

By Monday evening three bridges over the Mary River had been closed, including the Granville, Lamington and Burrum River Bridges.<\/p>\n

SES Bundaberg deputy local controller Luke Harding said the organisation received 150 calls yesterday and urged residents to be prepared.<\/p>\n

“If you flooded in 2010, make sure you do start preparing now and get yourself ready for this flood coming through late this afternoon,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Harding stressed the importance of avoiding flood waters after a series of rescues across the region.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had too many people caught in flood waters and it’s stretching our resources real fast,” he said.<\/p>\n

Rains set to ease<\/p>\n

BOM senior meteorologist Christie Johnson said rainy conditions were expected to ease on Tuesday as the system moved offshore.<\/p>\n

“The good news is it is a clearing trend,” Ms Johnson said.<\/p>\n

“We should see a couple of showers lingering for a couple of days but by the time we get to Thursday, we’re looking at pretty much dry conditions.”<\/p>\n

A monsoon trough in North Queensland is expected to bring steady rainfall to the Gulf and Northern regions later this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Communities in the Burnett River catchment in central Queensland are bracing for potentially major flooding following a days-long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,263184,44,263181,263183,263182,198906,61837,203211,139636],"class_list":["post-529678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dams-spilling","tag-news","tag-paradise-dam","tag-queensland-dams","tag-queensland-flooding","tag-queensland-rain","tag-queensland-weather","tag-tropical-low","tag-weather-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}