Charleville Flood

High-water mark in the dusty outback. The storm system is weakening and moving SE:

THE military flew into Charleville last night as the drenched western Queensland town braced for its worst flooding in a decade and residents' anger grew over an unfinished levee bank.

Two Australian Defence Force Hercules aircraft were ferrying temporary flood barriers from Sydney to Charleville while angry residents questioned why a long-awaited $7 million levee bank had not been finished earlier.

...With a monsoonal low still dumping heavy rain, the swollen Warrego River was threatening to burst its banks and swamp Charleville – which has already been inundated by floodwaters from Bradleys Gully which runs through the centre of town.

...One of the residents to be evacuated, lifelong Charleville local Ron Akers, 81, said it was starting to look like 1997 – the last big flood when the Warrego peaked at 7.3m.

"As long as it's not like the 1990 flood when my house got wiped out and they had to evacuate just about the whole town in boats," Mr Akers said.

He said the partly finished 4km levee bank being built by the Murweh Shire Council and State Government would offer some protection as the Warrego rose. But other residents were angry the bank had not been completed.

"It should have bloody been built years ago after the '97 flood – now, 10 years later, our homes are under threat again," said one man as he sandbagged his home and evacuated.

But Murweh Shire Mayor Mark O'Brien said the levee was a four-year project and rain in November and December had delayed its completion.

...Longreach was also bracing for its biggest flood in four years as the Thomson River continued to rise but the levels there were not expected to reach the town itself.

The swollen Fitzroy River tributaries – Nogoa River and Dawson River – are rising, with moderate to major flooding warnings for the surrounding areas. Warnings also still remain for the upper Belyando River, lower Burdekin River, and Alpha Creek.

Carnarvon Gorge National Park remains closed and cut off.