Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said large reptiles had been spotted in the floodwaters and urged people to take precautions.

"There are a lot of crocodiles that are being sighted at the moment so be careful on the roads and please don't go near the crocodiles," Premier Palaszczuk said

Police conformed at least one crocodile was spotted close to a woman who was rescued from floodwater on Saturday night.

State Disaster Coordinator Bob Gee said people were using common sense in the aftermath of the cyclone.

"I think its obvious enough in those areas, having grown up in those sort of places that you’re going to run into wildlife where there’s floods," he said.

"Last night, it’s true police were out there helping a younger lady that had gotten into a spot of bother in unpredicatble environments and as they approached or, well, were leaving actually, here’s a big crocodile on the side of the road.

"So it's not just water that's a danger — it's falling trees after we’ve had fires, and wildlife [and] are all the sorts of things that we can expect."

Queensland Police Service were also urging "the motoring public and the boating fraternity" to be extremely cautious when traversing waterways, watercourses and roadways.

"Heavy rains and flooded waterways are unpredictable with large volumes of surface water making conditions dangerous due to hazards such as storm debris, road washouts and wildlife," a spokesman said.

"Police are urging everyone to obey road-closure signs and to travel with extreme caution, limiting non-essential travel in any area affected by the current severe weather systems."

The spokesman said the on-going and significant rainfall had increased water flow in many streams, tributaries and water courses.

"Parents are reminded to ensure children are not playing in flood prone areas and drains as water levels can rise swiftly and quickly become treacherous," he said.

"Remember: road closures and road conditions continually change as creeks and water courses rise and fall quickly.

"Road conditions may be difficult to assess and water depth and storm debris hard to accurately detect.

"So please, re-think your need to travel and limit non-essential travel."

Bureau of Meteorology's Lauren Pattie said ex-tropical cyclone Owen weakened below category 1 by 4pm on Saturday, leaving the state with heavy rainfall.

"Ex-tropical Cyclone Owen is the very reason for this," she said.

"It began to drop a lot of rainfall and as it crossed from the gulf to the coast, we recorded 119 millimetres of rain in Dorunda.

"It looks to be moving south-easterly and may lie off the central coast by Monday morning."

A BOM warning on Sunday morning said heavy rainfall would extend from the tropical south through central Queensland, with possibly damaging winds in coastal areas north of Bowen.

"A broad upper level trough will move east over the state on Sunday and will eventually shift offshore into the Coral Sea later on Monday," it said.

The northern Herbert and Lower Burdekin district was seeing heavy rainfall, and this may lead to flash flooding.

Ms Pattie said heavy rain was expected to extend south into central Queensland today, as far as Bundaberg overnight.

"It looks like there will be scattered six-hourly rainfall totals, and between 100 and 200 millimetres are likely, and some isolated storms," she said.

Locations that may be affected include Ingham, Townsville, Palm Island, Charters Towers, Bowen, Proserpine, Mackay, Clermont, Rockhampton, Gladstone, Biloela and Bundaberg.

Damaging wind gusts of 90 kilometre per hour were possible in coastal areas north of Bowen as the tropical low moves south.

A 100 km/h wind gust was recorded at Lucinda at 3.30am on Sunday.

Ms Pattie said the highest rainfall dropped east of Ingham with 678 millimetres of rain.

"Halifax has recorded 300 millimetres in six hours," she said.

Ms Pattie said the storm would not redevelop but she was impressed by the amount of rainfall recorded in a widespread area.

"Cyclones in Queensland with heavy rainfall are uncommon but not unheard of," she said.

"We do get cyclones and upper troughs in this time of year; however, 600 millimetres is quite exceptional for any time of the year here.

"The fact that it is so widespread is incredible but it's not the first time it’s happened and probably won’t be the last."

Towns miss out on much-needed rain

BOM state manager Bruce Gunn said there were many parts of Queensland that missed out.

"I know some parts are really crying out for rainfalls still, if I could have steered that low straight southwards into western qld I would’ve but obviously I can‘t do that," he said.

"So look there are still some people struggling with low rinfall totals but in some areas it has been a welcome relief."

South-east Queensland was also copping heavy rain because of a combination of an upper trough and some moisture from north-easterly wind flow.

Pomona, a suburb in the Sunshine Coast, saw 156 millimetres of rain within 24 hours, with most of the rain being dumped between 8am and 9am on Sunday.

Ms Pattie said there was significant rainfall across the south-east, including Black Mountain near Pomona, which received 104 millimetres, and more rain falling west of Brisbane in Archerfield and Ipswich.

An updated BOM alert cancelled a previous severe thunderstorm warning but said a very moist and unstable air mass lay over the south-east, with widespread rain likely on Sunday.

"While thunderstorms and rain continue over south-east Queensland, the rainfall rates have eased," it said.

-- with APP