Being isolated for days, or sometimes weeks on end, after rain is to be expected for those living in outback Queensland communities.

Bedourie resident Michelle McFadyen was visiting Mount Isa in north west Queensland on Tuesday when she heard that widespread flooding in her home shire 500 kilometres away had worsened.

It became apparent she needed to return to the tiny community before it was too late.

As the Diamantina Shire Council acting CEO landed in Boulia, the first stop of the connecting regional flight, she was told a delivery truck was stranded nearby enroute to the remote community of Bedourie.

“It was sitting in Boulia and was going to spoil if we couldn’t get it off that truck and onto the plane,” Ms McFadyen said.

Bedourie Roadhouse, the town’s only grocery store, had placed an order in preparation for being cut off by floodwaters encroaching from the north.

But an unexpected deluge halted the delivery 220 kilometres away from its destination.

Ms McFadyen said some quick thinking and a call to the Rex Airlines CEO resulted in a team of 10 volunteers recruited to load 850 kilograms of chilled goods including milk and bread and eight bags of mail onto the aircraft.

“Fortunately, I was the only passenger on the plane so we did have enough capacity on the aircraft to take a fair bit of produce and chilled goods,” she said.

Bedourie Roadhouse manager Jaime Dare said even though dry goods did not fit on the plane, the community was grateful to have the fresh produce.

“When these things happen it kind of reminds you where you are and [reminds you of the] remoteness and isolation,” Ms Dare said.

“But to get those things it makes a life a bit more normal.”

Outback an ‘inland sea’, roads submerged

In parts of the Diamantina Shire, main roads have been totally submerged in floodwater.

“When I flew over the area between Boulia and Bedourie, it [looked like] an inland sea,” Ms McFadyen said.