With the Diamantina River hundreds of metres wide 60km west of Winton, police and a private helicopter pilot have worked together to rescue four tourists stranded by the floodwaters.
As reported earlier, police began coordinating the rescue effort on Saturday morning after an unregistered EBIRP activation was detected early on Friday morning and a search effort located four people and two vehicles, one partially submerged, on the side of the river.
According to the police report, it was understood the four people, stranded near Middleton, were European tourists and unfamiliar with the area.
One vehicle had driven into the water with two of the people who managed to get out and to safety.
A second and unrelated vehicle with two other tourists arrived shortly after and contacted emergency services for assistance.
Facing a sizeable flood, a private property owner was called in to use his helicopter to fly the foursome across the floodwaters to where vehicles were able to take them to Winton.
All four people are now safe.
Middleton Hotel publican, Lester Cain, who recorded 199mm to 9am Saturday morning, said he’s spoken to a campervan driver who he understood was Swiss, late on Wednesday afternoon.
“He wanted to camp but I said, I wouldn’t because the river will come down but it was hard to make him understand,” Mr Cain said. “I don’t know if that’s the same fellow but he said he’d driven far enough that day.”
He said properties to the north and east of him had had falls of up to 400mm.
“We’ll be cut off here for 10 days if it stops raining now, but they’re not expecting it to clear until Tuesday.
“The Middleton channels here are a kilometre and a half wide and it’s still all muddy.”
With the large rainfall in western and northern Queensland people are reminded, if it’s flooded, forget it.