A fresh high-water mark would mean more evacuations and put 80 percent of houses at risk of inundation.

"You've got no idea how relieved we are," Mayor Donna Stewart said after the river peaked at 13.5 meters. "It was just absolutely wonderful news that our community was safer than they thought they were going to be."

St. George, 513 kilometers west of Brisbane, is the latest of a string of country towns threatened by water barreling down rivers that had been mostly trickles over the 10-year drought.

"Outside my window is something resembling the Mississippi River," said St George resident and local member of Parliament Barnaby Joyce.

Joyce had sympathy for thousands dealing with sodden furniture and ruined electrical appliances but urged his constituents to take a long-term view.

"Water is money, water is cotton, water is grapes, water is wheat, water is cattle," Joyce, a former accountant, said.

The volume of water has been of Biblical proportions, with veterans of many floods saying this year's wet had beaten all records.

A record for the amount of water falling in a single day over the region set in 1956 was smashed last week.

Keith de Lacy, the chief of 93,000-hectare cotton farm 490 kilometers west of Brisbane, said the property's massive water storages were filling up fast.

Already, there is enough irrigation water for one-year's cropping.

"It's just brilliant," de Lacy said. "People are cheering and walking around with smiles on their faces."

Many farmers in central Queensland have survived the drought only though going into debt. The billions of liters of water now powering down the region's rivers will help shift bank balances back into the black.

The floods cannot come soon enough for de Lacy's Cubbie Station, which is being chased by bankers for 320 million Australian dollars ($288 million) in mortgage arrears.

Like a ball on a pinball machine, the water cascades down the river system, inundating towns as it goes.

Theodore, just south of St George, is the next with an urgent flood warning. Theodore homes and shops are being sandbagged as the Dawson River heads toward 13 meters. An evacuation center has been set up and householders are expected to stay up until the all-clear is given.