A powerful weather system is causing record rainfall and major flooding across northwest Queensland, with severe weather warnings issued for a vast area of the state. Emergency services are on high alert amid concerns of flooding similar to the devastating 2019 event that killed hundreds of thousands of livestock. Rainfall totals have reached 268 millimetres at South Mission Beach and 177 millimetres inland, with a slow-moving low and trough system expected to bring hundreds more millimetres in coming days.