North Queensland floods live updates: no reports of missing persons as Port Douglas, Cairns and Cooktown smash rainfall records

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Cairns wakes up to windless morning, beaches littered with flood debris

Local Anna Buckley says the “normally pristine” Trinity Beach, a coastal suburb of Cairns, “is littered with debris” this morning, after heavy rains and floods hit Cairns on Sunday afternoon.

We have woken to a cool, windless morning with no rain. Our normally pristine beach is littered with debris.

Cairns water treatment plant is inoperable which means possible contamination so we’ll use bottled water for drinking.

The Captain Cook highway to Port Douglas and Mossman is badly damaged and will be impassable for quite some time.

The normally pristine Trinity Beach, a coastal suburb of Cairns, is littered with debris this morning. Photograph: Anna Buckley

Buckley says Trinity Beach was “relatively untouched by yesterday’s catastrophic events,” that causedsignificant flood damage at nearby Machans Beach, Holloways Beach and Yorkeys Knob.

Updated at 18.03 EST

Queensland floods: Crews now cleaning up Cairns airport runway

Cairns Airport CEO Richard Barker says access has now returned to the runway so teams will be working to pump the water out, clean the runway and check the lighting.

Once we’ve done that, which will take at least all day, we’re in a position to make decisions about safety, to reopen.

Barker says about 250 passengers were left stranded when the airport was closed yesterday, and they had to return home and go to temporary accomodation in the city.

He says the airport has resources and is “pretty much under control” but ADF assistance is needed in remote and cut-off areas where people are stranded.

We’re working hard to get the emergency helicopters back in the air.

Updated at 20.31 EST

Cairns airport flooding highest in more than 100 years

Richard Barker, chief executive of Cairns airport, says flooding at the airport is the highest its been in more than 100 years and he has never seen anything like it.

Speaking to ABC News, he says the nearby Barron river has reached “the highest levels since records began” in 1910, rising 4.5m.

We have a significant levee around the airport and water came over that for the first time ever, flooding the entire runway and our general aviation precinct … We made the decision to stop arrivals, we aimed to get as many aircraft out as we safely could [and] shut the runway.

We were talking yesterday with one of the engineers who designed and put in the drainage system 25 years ago. He has never seen anything like it himself either.

Yesterday, Cairns airport was closed in anticipation of the record flooding.

Updated at 17.57 EST

ADF to airlift more first responders to Cairns to help with floods, federal emergency minister says

Emergency management minister Murray Watt has thanked the Cairns-based ADF personnel assisting the Far North Queensland community amid the flooding, at the request of the federal government.

West of Port Douglas, flooding of the McLeod river near Mount Carbine, has cut off the Mulligan Highway. Photograph: Supplied to Matt Nicholls, editor Cape York Weekly.

Watt says he has spoken with Queensland premier Steven Miles, and the ADF will be airlifting extra QFES and police personnel to Cairns.

Updated at 17.48 EST

Bushfire in Narrabri, NSW prompts evacuation centre set-up

While our focus remains on the flooding in Far North Queensland, AAP has details about an uncontained bushfire in New South Wales:

An evacuation centre has been set up at Narrabri in the state’s northwest after the fire threatened properties in the area.

Earlier in December, lightning strikes caused fires in the Narrabri region, like this one on 9 December. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

The out-of-control fire, which is in the Pilliga Forest, close to Narrabri and the town of Boggabri, has so far burnt more than 64,700 hectares, NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) says on its website.

The blaze was at emergency level early Monday before being downgraded to watch and act level later in the morning, An evacuation centre has been established for residents.

The immediate threat had eased, but north westerly winds were forecast to increase, which would push the fire east.

More than 50 bush and grass fires are burning statewide, according to the RFS website, as a severe heatwave warning remains for the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast and Northern Tablelands Districts.

Updated at 17.40 EST

Share your stories with us

If you are in Far North Queensland and impacted by the extreme rain and flooding, we would love to hear from you.

Please send any photos and first hand accounts via X/Twitter @emilywindwrites or email (emily.wind@theguardian.com), for us to share on the blog and in our reporting.

And please, stay safe – the images that are coming through are so concerning.

Updated at 17.43 EST

Qld floods: emergency crews can’t reach people trapped on roof in Wujal Wujal

Chief executive of the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal shire council, Kylie Hanslow, says the nine people trapped on a roof are in a “desperate way”.

As Queensland premier Steven Miles flagged earlier, the nine people – including a seven-year-old boy – are trapped on the roof of the Wujal Wujal clinic. Emergency crews have been unable to get to them because of low-lying cloud, intense rainfall and flooding.

People trapped on the roof of a health clinic in Wujal Wujal are in a ‘desperate way’. Photograph: supplied to Matt Nicholls, editor Cape York Weekly

Hanslow told ABC News the little boy is unwell, and a chopper is due from Cairns.

We need to get those people some help. Apparently there’s a chopper coming from Cairns, they’ll fuel up in Cooktown and then [evacuate] those people out. But it’s bleak on the ground here in Wujal.

Hanslow hasn’t been able to get to the people stranded on the roof to assess their situation, but she says they would be freezing and wet.

It’s been a very long night for them … things are not looking good there.

She didn’t have an ETA on the chopper from Cairns but hopes it will arrive “sooner rather than later”.

Updated at 17.28 EST

Flooding south of Cairns closes vital access bridge for locals

Here are some screen grabs from the Peets Bridge River flood camera this morning, showing the extent of the flooding:

The bridge over the Peets River, about 30km south of Cairns, is closed because of flooding. Photograph: Cairns Regional CouncilThe Goldsborough Valley’s Peets Bridge is the only access bridge for people living in the area. Photograph: Cairns Regional Council

Updated at 17.11 EST

Qld floods: ‘life-threatening’ flash flooding could hit Hope Vale, Port Douglas

Here is the latest severe weather warning from the Bureau of Meteorology:

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Jasper remains near the Gulf Country and Peninsula border and, combined with a separate coastal trough near Daintree, is bringing heavy rainfall and flash flooding to land between Cape Flattery and Julatten.

Heavy flooding has badly damaged the Palmerston Highway south of Cairns in Queensland. Photograph: supplied to Matt Nicholls, editor Cape York Weekly

Widespread six-hourly rainfall totals between 150mm and 200mm are likely, with falls up to 250mm expected along the coast and adjacent ranges.

Rainfall is expected to slowly ease during the day and could fall below warning thresholds during the afternoon or evening.

Meanwhile, locally intense rainfall that could lead to “dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding” is possible between Hope Vale and Port Douglas, with six-hourly totals up to 300mm possible.

Significant rainfall totals since 9am yesterday to 7.30am today (local time) include:

Updated at 17.24 EST

Floods could lead to ‘billion-dollar’ financial impact in Queensland’s far north

Queensland deputy premier and treasurer Cameron Dick also spoke to ABC News breakfast this morning, from the QFES headquarters.

Asked about the extreme nature of the flooding from a financial perspective, he predicted it could amount to a “billion-dollar impact”:

I certainly think that it will be a billion-dollar impact, broadly, and not just on property, but on the economy more broadly here in the far north.

We will put whatever dollars we need to, every cent necessary to make sure that we can recover.

Earlier, Cairns mayor Terry James told ABC RN about the impact these floods will have on the local tourist industry:

This is the peak season for them. We get a lot of people coming up here to spend their Christmas, so spare a thought for the tourism industry and just the moment we get back on deck, if you can get back up here and have your holiday that’d be much appreciated because it’ll help a lot of businesses in the area.

Updated at 16.59 EST