Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pledged financial support for flood-hit areas during a tour of the worst affected parts of Queensland.
However, Ms Gillard warned that the recovery from the devastating floods would be slow.
In a series of visits by military helicopter, Ms Gillard went to towns whose streets have been turned into waterways by the floods.
The floods have swamped coal mines and hit agriculture hard, washed away roads and railways, and killed at least ten people.
Some river levels have hit record highs and some are still rising with further rain forecast for this weekend.
Ms Gillard said: 'The scale of the floodwaters, the sheer size of this is best appreciated from the air and we are talking about huge areas, lots of water.
'A lot of it is still very fast moving and so it's going to be a long time back. I've been very clear that we are talking about hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars.'
Thousands of people have left their homes, and in many towns locals and relief workers have been getting around the streets in boats.
Authorities say around 200,000 people have been affected.
Ms Gillard pledged funding to help improve flood protection for Rockhampton, a town of around 75,000 situated near the mouth of the Fitzroy River, which peaked at 9.2m on Wednesday.
