"Biblical" floods in northeastern Australia claimed their first victim, with the body of a missing woman recovered as the surging waters continued to rise. Emergency officials and police searched through the night by boat and helicopter for the 41-year-old swept from her car as she tried to cross a swamped causeway in the northern Gulf of Carpentaria region. Police managed to save three children and another adult from the car but the woman disappeared before they could reach her. Up to 200 000 people are estimated to have been hit by the floods which have left entire towns under water and cut off many more over an area the size of France and Germany combined, wreaking untold billions in damage to crops and the nation's key mining industry.
There were fears for another man missing after his fishing boat was swamped on Saturday afternoon near Gladstone, at the centre of the floods, and witnesses reported seeing a second man swept away in the swamped city of Rockhampton.