Dramatic rescues have saved Queenslanders from raging floodwaters including one man pulled to high ground when a bystander heroically dived into the torrent.
Incredible footage shows the moment Jamie Dickson swims through the rapidly flowing water to reach a struggling man named Leo after hearing his cries for help from the water’s edge.
Leo was fatigued after battling the floodwaters in Grantham in the state’s southeast, repeatedly bobbing under the surface and yelling ‘help, I can breathe’.
Mr Dickson dived in, wrapped his arm around Leo and pulled him back the edge as the clearly exhausted man struggled to stand on his own.
Bystander Jamie Dickson (right) jumped into raging floodwaters in southeast Queensland to save exhausted man Leo who had repeatedly bobbed under the water (left)
‘I thought I seen someone in the water and that was it, there was,’ Mr Dickson told Seven News.
‘Had to go about 300m off the road (through water to get to him). I had to wait to get my breath back to get him in.’
When asked if he considered his act to be brave, a humble Mr Dickson said: ‘I suppose’.
A relieved Leo will spend at least 24 hours in hospital to monitor his condition.
SES workers arrive via boat in Logan to help residents after the river flooded due to heavy rainfall on Saturday and Sunday (pictured)
In another rescue on the Sunshine Coast, a family of three were evacuated by QFES boat after their Glasshouse Mountains home was inundated by rapidly rising floodwater.
‘It was over a metre high around the property and that’s why we needed the boat to get out,’ Nicolette Stewart said who lives at the home with her partner Rachel Thompson and their son Noah.
‘A guy tried to drive through the waters and lost his van, and it was just floating out the front, tucked up against the bank,’ she told The Courier Mail.
Ms Stewart said their house, which they only moved into a month ago, and their belongings were ruined but she said she was just grateful emergency services got her entire family out safely.
Residents look on as the Logan River floods on Sunday with several town under evacuation orders (pictured)
A 1,000mm rainbomb continues to deepen the crisis across Queensland and northern New South Wales tens of thousands of residents without power
In the Brisbane CBD, a man was rescued from his houseboat after fast-flowing debris punctured the hull.
The boat was moored at Howard Smith Wharves in the CBD as the Brisbane River broke its previous 2013 flood record early on Sunday.
A pontoon became loose, floated down the river and collided with the houseboat about 9am.
Emergency services arrived to find the houseboat sunk and the man floating in the torrent before they were able to pull him to the riverbank.
He is being treated in hospital for minor exposure to the elements.
And further north in the Gympie region another three people and three pet dogs were rescued after floodwaters inundated their home.
Crew from the RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter on the Sunshine Coast flew to the property at Kybong about 1.15pm on Saturday.
They airlifted the occupants out as waters rose knee-deep and all roads were cut-off by the floods.
A QAS flight paramedic was winched down to the group as the pilot hovered low to the ground.
Gympie, north of Brisbane, was completely inundated by floodwaters on Saturday (pictured)
Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk urged resident to remain in their houses unless under evacuation orders (pictured: Logan River on Sunday)
The first two people were hoisted to the chopper in the rescue basket, along with one dog, which was tightly secured.
They were ferried to higher ground, where other groups of displaced residents were gathered and there was access to a road.
The crew repeated the process until the trio and their animals – all uninjured – were on dry land.
A car is almost completely submerged after being washed down rising floodwaters in Rocklea
A house is inundated with water at Rocklea south of Brisbane on Sunday (pictured)
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urged residents to stay home in the ‘unrelenting’ flood crisis that threatens to inundate more than 1,400 homes in Brisbane.
A severe weather warning is in place for southeast Queensland and areas in northern NSW as wild weather and dangerous flooding continues to lash large both states.
Six people died in Queensland, with a search under way for a yachtsman missing in the Brisbane river.
Addressing media in Brisbane on Sunday afternoon, Ms Palaszczuk described the rain in the state’s southeast as ‘non-stop’, and warned the extreme weather was unlikely to ease over the next 24 hours, before moving south.
‘I don’t want to see any more deaths. So please, please if you do not have to be out today, just stay at home, because this water is unrelenting at the moment,’ she said.
‘This is a very extreme weather event that we have at the moment.’
People have seen their homes and businesses completely submerged by rising floodwaters as the once-in-a-century weather event makes its way down Australia’s east coast (pictured: a cafe on the Sunshine Coast)
The premier expected there could be more around 1,430 homes across the city impacted as waters rose to over three metres.
The Bureau of Meteorology expects moderate flooding for the Brisbane river, but warned it was a ‘very evolving situation’, with updates on conditions scheduled for later on Sunday, and cautioning that the flood risk in the city could be upgraded.
A flood warning for 16 suburbs along the Brisbane River was issued on Saturday evening by Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner amid fears ‘several thousand properties’ could be inundated.
In Gympie, Ms Palaszczuk said there were around 550 people in the town’s evacuation centre, and a total of 1040 evacuated across the state.
Authorities expect Gympie’s swollen Mary River to rise above its highest level in 23 years, while supplies have been delivered to an Indigenous community in nearby Cherbourg set to be cut off by floodwaters.
A home at Rocklea on Sunday morning with rising floodwaters making it unsafe for some people to go back to their houses
Severe weather was also moving to the Gold Coast, with authorities monitoring the Logan and Albert rivers and calls coming in for assistance from the Gold Coast hinterland areas.
Amid the crisis, water was being released from Brisbane’s Wivenhoe Dam, which was at 160 per cent over capacity. The Moogerah Dam, inland from the Gold Coast, is also spilling, as is the Atkinson Dam.
Parents concerned about children going to school on Monday would be updated about effects on the education system.
‘Education is doing a lot of work at the moment. There will be some schools impacted,’ Ms Palaszczuk said.
Parts of Gympie were submerged on Saturday amid the rising water (pictured)
Meanwhile, the search continues for the sole sailor, aged in his 70s, who fell overboard from his vessel near the mouth of Breakfast Creek about 4.45pm on Saturday.
Those who died include a man who lost his life in the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly when his car became submerged.
The 34-year-old tried to swim to safety but witnesses raised the alarm when he failed to surface.
On Saturday, police divers found the body of a 37-year-old man in floodwaters near Gympie, north of the Sunshine Coast, while that of a 54-year-old man was discovered at Stones Corner in inner Brisbane.
A female SES volunteer was also killed when a car she was in was swept away en route to a rescue near Ipswich on Friday night.
The deaths follow those of a 54-year-old man killed riding a motorbike through rising water at Gympie last week and a 63-year-old found dead in a submerged car on the Sunshine Coast.
Floodwaters at Boondall in Brisbane with streets in a number of suburbs under water (pictured)
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