The high schoolers and their teachers were without power, water or food, as their camping weekend suddenly turned into a rescue mission. Parfitt and his search and rescue colleagues ferried them out in boats to a makeshift school shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat 24-hour period was worse than the worst-case scenario the Bureau of Meteorology had predicted,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cNinety per cent of rescues were people getting stuck in their dwellings that had become cut off. We were doing boat rescues with 12 animals in one boat. We even assisted a cow \u2013 literally took it by its horns as it was swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two overseas backpackers have died<\/a> amid northern Australia\u2019s floods<\/a>, with a further 200mm of rainfall possible across the Top End over the weekend.<\/p>\n Police and emergency services were also called to Burnett River north of Bundaberg at about 1am on Friday following reports another man, aged 51, had gone into the water from a houseboat.<\/p>\n Bureau senior meteorologist Dean Narramore says forecast rains are likely to lead to more rapid river rises. Major flood warnings were in place for the Daly and Georgina rivers, as well as Eyre Creek, in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n In Queensland<\/a>, major flood warnings were in place for the Fitzroy, Flinders, Upper Balonne, Thomson, Alice, and Lower Condamine rivers and Cooper Creek, while the community of Longreach \u2013 1,200km north-west of Brisbane \u2013 had been told to prepare to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cPretty much all of western NT is under flood watches, from Darwin to the rock [Uluru], in anticipation of widespread heavy rainfall,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Hundreds of homes, businesses and cattle stations in parts of the NT and Queensland have been flooded<\/a> in the past week, with residents forced to shelter on rooftops and more than 1,000 evacuations<\/a> across Bundaberg<\/a>, Katherine and the remote Top End communities of Nauiyu (Daly River), Nganmarriyanga (formerly known as Palumpa), Beswick and Jilkminggan.<\/p>\n Crocodiles have been spotted<\/a> down residential streets in Katherine, while in Bundaberg, dozens of boats have gone missing or been swept away in the flood waters. In one instance, two trawlers were found in the middle of a cane field. In another, three yachts were ditched on to a rocky embankment.<\/p>\n Debris continues to stream down swelling rivers, from gas bottles to kegs.<\/p>\n Dogs and families airlifted to safety<\/p>\n A regional helicopter service, LifeFlight, has been out every day conducting rescues, including a woman bitten by a snake her cat dragged into the house.<\/p>\n The woman, aged in her 70s, couldn\u2019t be reached by the local Queensland ambulance service because the North Bundaberg roads were flooded. She was transported to hospital in a stable condition.<\/p>\n Heli-Muster NT usually helps farmers muster cattle by air, but has temporarily transformed into an emergency service over the past week, ferrying supplies and evacuating stranded families and animals.<\/p>\n One family were at the remote Munbililla campgrounds, around 300km east of Katherine, with their four German shepherds when they were cut off by rapidly rising flood waters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The couple, their 22-year-old daughter and the pets were helicoptered out by Heli-Muster after police got them to drier land.<\/p>\n
![\"Dog](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1773391330_334_1920.jpg\")
Dog rescued by helicopter from raging flood waters in Northern Territory \u2013 video\u2018So many are destroyed\u2019<\/p>\n