Flooding hits shops, homes in Maryborough

The rising Mary River has started to claim businesses and homes in the southeastern Queensland town of Maryborough ahead of an expected 8.4 metre flood peak.

Residents report it was raining heavily on Sunday morning, after more than 150 millimetres was received overnight.

The business district had been barricaded in preparation, but Superintendent Stephen Wardrope says two homes have already been inundated, as well as two businesses in the CBD and four or five at the marina.

The Wallace Caravan Park, near the Lamington Bridge, was evacuated before it went under water, and there had been no injuries so far, Supt Wardrope said.

"The water level is currently over the Lamington Bridge and also the Granville bridge ... about 8.05 metres over the bridges now," he told reporters on Sunday.

"We have it expected to peak at this time at about 8.5 (metres) today at about midday or one o'clock today which is down from the possible 9 (metres) we were expecting."

The state's major roadway, the Bruce Highway, reopened to cars at 3am (AEST) on Sunday, with a detour through the town of Gympie due to a bridge wash-out.

However police expected it could again be closed before 1pm (AEST) with heavy rain in the area making driving hazardous.

The Wide Bay Highway remains closed at Bells Bridge, as well as the D'Aguilar Highway at Kilcoy Creek just east of Kilcoy.

In 1999 the Mary River peaked at 8.75 metres at Maryborough, and it is feared a second, higher peak could eventuate late on Sunday with continued heavy rain upstream.

Elsewhere in Queensland, the Balonne River peak was revised downwards to 13.4 metres, a relief to residents of flood-hit St George, in the state's southwest.

The clean-up continues at Theodore, where residents are still not allowed to move back into their inundated homes, and in the central Queensland city of Rockhampton, the Fitzroy is holding steady at 9.15 metres and shows no signs of receding.

Mayor Brad Carter on Sunday asked residents who had evacuated and not registered with the council to get in touch, to make the process of moving back into homes better co-ordinated.

The council was making kits of equipment to assist homeowners with the clean-up, and needed to distribute them in an orderly way, he said.

With the floodwaters not expected to recede until Friday, Mr Carter recognised it was a sticky and stinky time.

"The issue of the stench, the question of the mosquitoes, sandflies and blackflies ... will be very uncomfortable to our community," he told reporters.

Mr Carter was upbeat about the town's prospects, despite it still being cut off from the outside world by road and air.

Only a small number of residents had suffered "serious hardship", he said.

"This region and this community is not destitute and we are certainly not a basket case, we are a very resilient community," he said.

The Bureau of Meteorology updated its severe weather warning on Sunday morning, predicting heavy rain leading to flash flooding and worsening river floods in the southeastern coast, southern parts of Wide Bay and the Burnett, the eastern Darling Downs and Granite Belt districts.

- AAP