The annual Ride to Conquer Cancer, now in its fourth year, departed from the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus on its 110-kilometre journey to Wivenhoe Dam having raised almost $4 million.

QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute director Frank Gannon said the inclement weather was laughed off by those donning the lycra and helmets.

“I was talking to a lot of the riders and they were saying compared to cancer, this is nothing,” he said.

Professor Gannon said there had been no wet-weather accidents reported among the 1127 riders, who between them raised a “humbling” $3.8 million for cancer research.

“You don’t just say ‘oh it’s too wet, I’m going to postpone it’ – it’s something you can’t postpone,” he said.

“Just like when cancer comes, you can’t say ‘I’m sorry, I’m not ready for you’.”

Professor Gannon said most riders had somehow been touched by cancer.

“Everybody I’m spoken to has got a motive,” he said..

“…There’s story after story among the riders and it’s very uplifting to be among them.”

The riders would have been banking on waterproof tents as they set up camp at Wivenhoe Dam, prior to their ride back to UQ on Sunday.

But while the south-east had its share of rain on Saturday, the Bureau of Meteorology reported heavier falls in the parched west.

Meteorologist Mike Knepp said both Charleville (52 millimetres) and Cunnamulla (58 millimetres) had daily August rain records.

“Places around Charleville had even higher rainfall, in the 70s and 60s, so that seems to be the best place to be,” he said.

Despite the heavy rainfall, Mr Knepp said there was no immediate danger of flooding.

“It’s not intense rain or anything like that,” he said.

Other than that, Mr Knepp said it was a case of “just general rainfall” over much of Queensland, with a concentration over the south-east on Saturday evening going into Sunday.

Rainfall around Brisbane was “adding up”, Mr Knepp said, with heavier falls expected on Sunday.