North Queensland has been hit by widespread rain over the weekend with more than 100 millimetres of rain in some areas within 24-hours.
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The Bureau of Meteorology says a deepening trough remains slow moving over parts of western and interior Queensland, drawing tropical moisture from ex-tropical Cyclone Megan, enhancing rainfall in its vicinity.
The bureau reported Bambaroo, north of Townsville received one of the largest falls with 159mm in the 24 hours to 9am, while Hughenden Airport recorded 101mm.
Mahrigong, north east of Winton, recorded 176mm, while Mount Isa mine received 124mm
North west grazier, Kylie Stretton and her husband Shane, manage Red Hill Station, 40km north of Charters Towers.
Kylie recently posted to Who Got The Rain? to share her delight of receiving over 60mm over night.
"After tallying up their wet season totals yesterday and only coming up with around 15 inches, compared to our average of 26 inches, we were starting to get a bit worried," she said.
"Fortunately 60mm found us last night and has been drizzling steadily on and off since I measured.
The Strettons run a Brahman breeding operation, running up to 500 head of cattle.
Ms Stretton said they were going into the dry season with a bit more confidence now, following the recent deluge.
"This rain has topped up the dams again and it's lovely actually," she said.
"We didn't start getting rain until the end of January. It had been very dry up until then and it looked like it was getting good but we only had about half of that average.
"Our pastures are looking very good here at Red Hill.
"There are some people who live about 80km from us, who have received over 31 inches of rain this wet season and they're just waiting for it to stop because it's right up in that basalt country and it's going to get very cold and they're going to lose a lot of grass over winter.
"So they were hoping to get the grass dry before the first frost, but I don't think that's going to happen now."
Cloncurry bull sale still going ahead
Further west, Glenlands D Droughtmaster stud principal Darren Childs is preparing his family's Droughtmaster bulls ahead of their annual Cloncurry bull sale this week.
The sale, which features 140 Droughtmaster bulls from the Glenlands D, Crown M, and Eddington Droughtmaster studs, is still scheduled to go ahead on Tuesday afternoon, despite heavy falls overnight.
Cloncurry received about 64mm overnight on top of 56mm a couple of days ago.
With some roads closed, especially north of Cloncurry due to flooding, Mr Childs said they were organising planes to fly prospective buyers into Cloncurry for the sale.
"It's very wet at the moment and we've been organising a few planes this morning to get prospective buyers into the sale at Cloncurry if we have to," Mr Childs said.
"We have 140 bulls ready for sale and they're handling the wet conditions really well actually.
"It's great to see the widespread rain and it's going to have a massive impact long term for some producers."
Mr Childs confirmed the sale will still be going ahead, despite the rain.
"Obviously, it's not ideal when you're trying to hold a bull sale, it is what it is, but we can't knock the rain," he said.
Easter at Einasleigh event cancelled
The rain has already cancelled some Easter events across North west Queensland, including the races and rodeo event which would have taken place at Einasleigh this weekend.
Known as the Easter at Einasleigh, organisers announced on social media that all ticket holders would be full refunded after they were forced to cancel the event, due to heavy rain isolating the township.
"Einasleigh had 95mm overnight so we have no choice but to call it off," the post read.
Wet forecast ahead of Easter long weekend
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting that the trough, which is currently impacting Queensland, will start to move a little eastwards through the early days of this week and remain slow moving for a couple of days, bringing more rain to most parts of the state.
Meteorologist Livio Regano explained the trough was also drawing moisture from ex-tropical cyclone, Megan which is currently lingering in the gulf.
"Currently, there's an upper level trough over Western Australia and all it's doing over days is drawing moisture in from the northwest and gradually seeding into a big cloud band that's over Queensland," he said.
"The thing about this system is that you can't really see it on the weather chart and over the next few days, it's going to be very slow moving so the weather is going to continue for a while.
"In the deep interior of Queensland, it should be all gone by Easter long weekend but coastal areas and areas along the Great Dividing Range, those areas should continue to receive showers.
"At the moment, we're getting a lot of rain in the interior of Queensland and even Mount Isa received over 90 millimeters of rain overnight."
Mr Regano said by Good Friday, the rain should be out of the deep interior of Queensland.
"If you can imagine this big river of moist air getting drawn down from Indonesia, it's slowly progressing eastward so the focus over the next few days will shift further and further east," he said.
There also several flood warnings in place across North Queensland and the following watches/warnings are current for:
- Flood Watch for South West Queensland
- Flood Watch for the Cape York Peninsula and parts of the Gulf Country
- Moderate Flood Warning for Eyre Creek
- Moderate Flood Warning for the Nicholson River and Flood Warning for the Leichhardt River
- Initial Minor Flood Warning for the Bohle River
- Minor Flood Warning for the Barcoo River
- Minor Flood Warning for the Cloncurry and Upper Flinders Rivers
- Minor Flood Warning for the Norman River and Flood Warning for the Gilbert River
- Final Flood Warning for the Daintree and Mossman Rivers