Residents in one of the driest towns in outback Queensland have gathered at a pub surrounded by floodwaters to lift their glasses to the sky after the heaviest rain in years drenched the area.

About 162mm of rain was recorded at Urandangi, south of Mt Isa, over just three hours on Wednesday morning – almost three times the February average.

“It’s wet, very wet,” local pub owner Pam Forster told AAP.

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“There’s water over the road here and there, and a lot of the creeks and the swamps are full up and the Georgina (River) has come up from 2.4m to 3m in an hour.”

Patches of heavy rain hit much of the state’s drought-stricken northwest overnight, with several homes evacuated at nearby Dajarra and some of the region’s roads cut off.

Ms Forster said it was the most rain she had seen in the town, which has a population of about 25, since she moved to the farming region from the Kimberley eight years ago.

“It’s been a long time … it’s needed very badly,” Ms Forster, who is originally from Victoria, said.

“We are happy and the (cattle) stations will be happy too.”

Ms Forster went for a drive to inspect the town on Wednesday morning before opening up the pub to locals cut off by the floodwaters.

She said trade had been up and down since the drought hit after the last big weather event in February 2009 when 337mm of rain was recorded.

“It’s a great place to live but you’ll never be a millionaire, it’s the lifestyle you enjoy,” she said.

Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jess Carey said the heaviest falls were at Urandangi but other areas in the northwest, as well as areas around Gladstone and Emerald, received between 25mm and 100mm.

A southerly change that moved through the southeast overnight cooled temperatures after several hot and humid days.

-AAP