Prolonged, consistent rain in the Gulf of Carpentaria has isolated Normanton and other communities going on nine weeks, with conditions not expected to ease for some time.
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While it's not Normanton's biggest start to a wet season - the town's airport officially recorded 405mm in January and 361mm in February, surpassed by 1054mm for the same period in 2009 - the duration of the prolonged closure of the Gulf Developmental Road has caught everyone by surprise.
Shannon Gallagher, who lives with husband Ashley and family on Sawtell Creek Station, 25km east of Normanton, has been boating to work in Normanton.
She said the road to Cairns was first cut off around January 4 and aside from a day and a half that the river level dropped and allowed access, it's been impassable since, with water currently a good "two metres" over the bridge.
She said the river had been much higher during the last "major" flood in 2009 but dropped after three or four weeks.
"This time it's taking forever," Mrs Gallagher said.
"It's been ongoing rain."
A resupply exercise was underway Monday to the township of Normanton - the first since access had been cut off - and Mrs Gallagher said it was frustrating that it took so long for supplies to be replenished.
"I think because we never had a massive flood event they kept thinking it was going to ease - and it just hasn't," she said.
"The Flinders River has been up and down this wet season so there has been some trucks that have been able to get through from the Cloncurry side."
At Sawtell Creek Station, the Gallaghers had enough time to shift cattle and horses from river paddocks before the river rose.
Mrs Gallagher said she hoped the wet season would ease off by the end of March.
"There's been a number of years that we have to help boat people around Easter time (April) near our place; that's not unusual," she said.
"But it's very unusual for the road to be cut off in January and still be cut at Easter."
Nicole Jansen, Bowthorn, Burketown, said they were restricted to the station compound due to flooding.
"Our road out is basically a lap pool, our boundary grid is underwater and so are one set of cattle yards," Ms Jansen said.
"The Nicholson River is the highest since 2006, and it has gone well and truly past that level and is the highest since there have been dwellings on this side of the river at Bowthorn, (about 1995) that we know of."
Ms Jansen said while Gulf residents were accustomed to isolation during the wet season, and planned accordingly, the big wet still wreaked havoc, with concerns flooding downstream could force the evacuation of some residents.
"For the biggest part we are thankful for the big wet," Ms Jansen said.
"It has been needed for a while. But we do wonder if anyone else understands the complexities of life up here. Although we are used to the isolation, we are still human and some of our friends are going through a disaster, and no one outside the shire knows."
