\n<\/p>\n
Residents of the coastal Queensland city of Bundaberg have been told to evacuate immediately as the region braces for major flooding in the wake of a tropical low.<\/p>\n
It comes after days of heavy rain across northern Australia, with parts of the Northern Territory experiencing their worst flooding in decades, and Darwin residents asked to reduce water use after the Darwin River Dam \u2013 the city\u2019s major water source \u2013 stopped operating due to flooding.<\/p>\n
An emergency alert was issued by the Bundaberg local disaster management group ahead of the swollen Burnett River\u2019s expected peak on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Bundaberg residents were told on Tuesday afternoon that lives were at risk and were advised to \u201cleave immediately\u201d ahead of major flooding \u201cwhich will cause property inundation and isolation\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Meteorology said major flooding of the river at Bundaberg could exceed 7 metres on Tuesday afternoon and rise to 7.5 metres by midnight.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy 3pm today the bridges will close,\u201d Tom Smith, the Queensland MP for Bundaberg, said in a message to residents on Tuesday morning. \u201cThat means you need to make a decision as to where are you going to stay.\u201d He said the Bundaberg Recreational Precinct had been established as a place of refuge.<\/p>\n
\u201cRivers throughout Queensland are running high, with major flooding occurring for at least 15 different rivers as of Tuesday morning,\u201d the BoM said in a statement. \u201cThe rain has cleared over the worst affected areas on Monday afternoon and evening, but given how much rain has already fallen, the rivers will stay at elevated levels for some time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tropical low 29U, which had formed in the Coral Sea last week before moving inland, had moved offshore, Daniel Hayes of the BoM said. \u201cAll those areas that were seeing very significant weather over the weekend are now much clearer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA very large portion of Queensland is currently in flooding, and most of the state \u2013 if they\u2019re not in flooding \u2013 they\u2019re still covered by a flood watch,\u201d he said. \u201cAreas that are not currently in flood may move into flood even though the sky has largely cleared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further inland in Mundubbera, the BoM warned that the Burnett was expected to pass the major flood threshold of 18 metres on Tuesday afternoon. Gayndah residents were also urged to take shelter at the local community hall, with a flood emergency warning issued by the North Burnett regional council.<\/p>\n
Among Queensland\u2019s highest three-day rainfall totals \u2013 from 9am Saturday to 9am Tuesday \u2013 were 396mm at Boondooma, 381mm at Marodian, 279mm at Bundaberg South and 263mm at Gympie.<\/p>\n
Animation showing selected daily rainfall totals since 7 March<\/p>\n
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Tuesday urged people in affected communities to prioritise their safety by following flood advice and warnings.<\/p>\n
He warned motorists not to drive through flood waters after several people were rescued from inside or on top of their cars, including a child from Bargara near Bundaberg.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s flooded, forget it \u2013 we can\u2019t say it too many times,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people follow that advice, we\u2019ll continue to provide support, as we always do, with the state and territory governments.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trough over the Northern Territory that has brought major flooding to parts of the Top End was likely to \u201cbe a feature for a number of days yet\u201d, Hayes said. \u201cWe\u2019re likely to have the chance of seeing some heavy rainfall \u2026 today [Tuesday] into tomorrow, possibly even right through to the end of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday evening, Northern Territory water and electricity supplier PowerWater said that Darwin River Dam had stopped operating \u201cdue to substantial flooding of the pump station and associated equipment\u201d.<\/p>\n
The dam\u2019s spillway had been overflowing since January due to a heavy wet season, PowerWater said, and Monday\u2019s rain pushed the dam to more than 110% capacity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an unprecedented situation and we have never seen this volume of water in the dam before. Our priority is to restore the pump station and associated equipment as quickly as is safely possible and we are investigating operating the dam with generators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we work on fixing the dam, we\u2019re asking Darwin residents to reduce their water use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preliminary data suggested Darwin\u2019s wet season would be the seventh wettest on record, Hayes said. Katherine, which on Saturday experienced its worst flooding in decades, was on track for its fifth wettest ever wet season.<\/p>\n
Across Australia, the 2025-26 summer was the wettest in nearly a decade, according to the BoM, with rainfall 32% higher than average across the country.<\/p>\n
Global heating is making Australia more vulnerable to extreme weather and natural disasters, including flash flooding and intense rainfall. In 2025, the third-hottest year on record, global surface air temperatures averaged 1.48C above preindustrial levels. For each 1C of warming, the atmosphere can hold 7% more moisture.<\/p>\n
\u2013 with AAP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Residents of the coastal Queensland city of Bundaberg have been told to evacuate immediately as the region braces for major flooding in the wake of a tropical low. It comes after days of heavy rain across northern Australia, with parts of the Northern Territory experiencing their worst flooding in decades, and Darwin residents asked to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[346,4674,23684,5951,586,8507,1811,2847,2329,5104,2315,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-46309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-brace","10":"tag-bundaberg","11":"tag-evacuate","12":"tag-flooding","13":"tag-immediately","14":"tag-major","15":"tag-parts","16":"tag-queensland","17":"tag-residents","18":"tag-told","19":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}