Footage captures moment Qld boy rescued from flooded car as widespread flooding smashes Aussie states

A young boy has been rescued from a car stranded in raging floodwaters on Queensland’s Central Coast, as extreme weather continues to batter parts of northern Australia. Police pulled the child from a vehicle that attempted to cross a flooded causeway near Bargara, about 13km east of Bundaberg. A video shared on Facebook showed two officers enter fast flowing floodwater to rescue the boy, Nine News reported. The Bureau of Meteorology warned of the risk of flash flooding after persistent rain advised persistent rain from the northwest lashed the area from Sunday until Monday morning. Widespread rainfall between 80mm to 150mm fell across Wide Bay-Burnett catchment, parts of the Sunshine Coast, southern Capricornia, the Central Highlands and Coalfields areas. “Isolated (rainfall) totals were much higher,” meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said. In the Northern Territory, supermarkets have been stripped bare as Darwin residents resort to “panic buying” in the wake of ongoing flooding and torrential downpours. In a video posted to TikTok by user @siennamallonn on Sunday night, a Coles supermarket in Darwin has bare shelves. “We’re in Coles right now seeing what’s left in Darwin because there’s been flooding in Katherine, so all the roads are closed,” Ms Mallon says. In the video, shelves usually stacked full of bread, fruit, long-life milk and other essentials are bare as Ms Mallon says “this is worse than Covid” and another woman says she has “never seen anything like this in (her) whole life”. Outback towns already known for their isolation are being cut off by torrential rainfall as a pair of low pressure systems wreak havoc across the Northern Territory and Queensland. The Stuart Highway has been cut off in both directions on either side of Katherine, isolating the town’s 10,000 residents from the Territory’s other two major population centres; Darwin to the north and Alice Springs to the south. A Coles Supermarket in Darwin has been stripped of several household products as flooding cuts off major NT roads On Monday night, Facebook user Joan Miller posted images of road trains parked at the Larrimah Hotel, 180km southeast of Katherine, patiently waiting for the all clear to start trucking essential supplies up through Katherine and into Darwin. The NT Emergency Service was deployed to the area over the weekend and has actively been supplying stranded residents with food and other essentials at community evacuation centres. Bureau of Meteorology Meteorologist Helen Reid said a major flood warning was in place for the Katherine River, where water at the Katherine Bridge was registered at 19.2m, the same level as the April 2006 floods. “As of 4.30am on Monday morning, the flood level at this location has dropped to 17.4 metres, just below the major flood level,” Ms Reid said. “The Daly River is also seeing major flooding. At the Daly River police station we’re currently seeing a flood level of 14.7 metres, well above the major flood level. “This is a slowly rising river and we may not see a peak for some days. Likewise, after peaking, the decline in the flood level across the catchment is likely to be gradual, with major flooding continuing for most of the week ahead,” she said. “Showers and thunderstorms remain on the forecast in the coming days, and we could still see isolated heavy falls with thunderstorms. Grounds are saturated and rivers already swollen and flooded, so further rainfall may see pick-ups in flood levels, including across some locations where the flood level is starting to recede.” Queensland has also been experiencing heavy rainfall, which is moving away from the north coast and pushing towards the central and southeastern coasts as well as the central interior. “During Sunday afternoon in particular, rain rates increased across the central highlands and coalfields, Wide Bay and Burnett, and southeast coast. Parts of the Mariner and Warrego and the northern Darling Downs also registered some higher totals,” Ms Reid said. “Along the coast, the moderate to locally heavy falls reached as far south as the northern Brisbane suburbs and the Sunshine Coast, with much lighter falls across the Gold Coast. Overnight, rain really ramped up across areas north of the Sunshine Coast, mainly across the Wide Bay and Burnett District.” Between 9am on Sunday and 5am on Monday, Brovinia received 239mm, Boondooma 209mm, and Kuranda 199mm. Ms Reid said Monday would be a wet day across “broad parts of central and South East Queensland”, as the low pressure trough draws in significant moisture. Segments of inland Queensland around the central highlands and coalfields district are expected to receive rainfall totals between 60-90mm with “isolated totals” of about 150mm possible. “Depending on rain rates, these could lead to dangerous, potentially life-threatening flash flooding. Widespread flood warnings are also in place as our rivers continue to rise to this rain.”