With towns still isolated, thousands displaced and emergency supplies struggling to get through as stocks run short, Australia is again counting the cost of massive flooding.

A Northland man who had been repairing Queensland roads damaged in floods in 2010 and 2011 has been stranded in Bundaberg as a result of ex-cyclone Oswald.

A Kiwi family managed to escape just minutes before the boat they were in - their home - was swept down a raging river in Queensland.

Anne Bolland wept yesterday as swirling brown floodwaters advanced on her home in the low-lying Brisbane suburb of Milton.

The death of a boy hit by a falling tree has taken Queensland's flood toll to four, as the Australian city of Bundaberg remains in the grip of its worst ever flood.

Thousands of homes are underwater in Queensland and New South Wales as ex-tropical cyclone Oswald beats a devastating path down the coast, leaving authorities to prepare for another day of evacuations while floodwaters have already isolated hundreds of homes.

Queensland is gripped in another extraordinary flood crisis, as cities and towns across the state go under.

At least four people are feared dead in Queensland's unfolding flood crisis, which will leave the state with another massive damage bill.

While firefighters yesterday continued to battle huge blazes in Victoria, floods swept through Queensland, shutting down roads, railways and airports as former cyclone Oswald inundated coastal regions.

The eye of Hurricane Sandy has made landfall, causing flooding and high winds to hit the east coast states, including New York, Maine and New Jersey.

Wild weather continues to batter Fiji's main island of Viti Levu as two people are confirmed dead.