A second woman is confirmed to have died in flooding which has inflicted "incredible" devastation on communities in northern Australia. Police said the 82-year-old woman's body was found in a cane paddock in Queensland on Tuesday, two days after a 63-year-old woman died when a dinghy she was in overturned during a rescue attempt.

Flood waters are rising in the Australian state of Queensland after heavy rainfall. The area between Townsville and Cairns in the north-east is particularly badly affected - a region that is also very popular with tourists.

Australian authorities are scrambling to help isolated communities in Queensland after a flooding emergency forced thousands of evacuations, cut power to homes and washed away sections of a vital highway.

Authorities are warning deadly flooding in northern Queensland is expected to worsen. More than a metre of rain has fallen between Townsville and Innisfail in the past five days due to a slow-moving monsoon trough.