She is known as the cute 13-month-old toddler who became the poster girl for the 2011 Queensland floods.

One of more than 300 people rescued from the Lockyer Valley at the height of the floods, Montannah Creaser’s iconic image, in the arms of a Blackhawk helicopter Warrant Officer Tony Young, was so powerful it stopped the nation.

The image offered a symbol of hope and survival during one of Queensland’s worst weather events.

Wearing pink and with her name written in chalk on her arm, Montannah held on to Mr Young while he looked after her, all the while thinking of his own son safely at home.

“It actually reminded me of my own kid,” he said at the time. “I have a son the same age.”

While it was one of the most terrifying moments of her life, five years on the plucky girl, who is in Year 1 in 2016, has mastered swimming and is looking forward to having a new pool built in her backyard.

After leaving their Forest Hill home outside Gatton last year, the family relocated to Laidley, on the high side of the town which was ravaged by the floods.

Mother Roslyn Perry, 35, said it had been a tough time for them all.

“Where we live now it doesn’t flood – we live on the good side of Laidley for floods, although it’s not so great for crime. But even though we know we should be okay, we still get really nervous when the storms come in,” Ms Perry said.

“Montannah usually covers her ears and turns the television up so that she can’t hear the noise.”

And while Montannah was initially terrified of water after the floods, she has now become “a real little water baby” enjoying her half-hour lesson every week.

“She has really fallen in love with swimming,” Ms Perry said.

“And she used to be really scared of water so I paid to get the help that she really needed which has turned things around. We take Montannah swimming for water safety and are going to get a pool next week so the lessons are particularly important now. I want her to be able to save herself in water if anything ever happens,” Ms Perry said.

She still remembers that January 10, 2011, day as if it were yesterday.

2011 Queensland Floods survivor Roslyn Perry and her daughter Montannah Creaser (aged 4) in 2014. Picture: Jack Tran

“The floods had a real impact on our family,” Ms Perry said.

“One minute we were fine, and were told to go to school as usual and the next the water was at our knees and the whole town had to be evacuated. I still can’t believe that we are all okay and that nothing happened to our family. Many people were a lot worse off than us.”

Ms Perry said her family, including her four children, Montannah, Skye, 17, Crystal, 16, and Tiffany, 14, were some of the lucky ones.

During the floods, hundreds of people were rescued by Queensland emergency services, many after an inland tsunami smashed through the Lockyer Valley and range-top at Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

Warrant Officer Tony Young, 43, the man who helped evacuate the family, still remembers the look of fear on little Montannah’s face when he swept her up in his arms.

Montannah Creaser, now aged 6. Picture: Jack Tran.

Ms Perry, Skye and Crystal were on one side of the Blackhawk that choppered them to safety, while Montannah and Ms Perry’s mother Pat, were strapped in on the opposite side.

They couldn’t find each other in the confusion and Ms Perry didn’t know where Montannah had ended up.

Hundreds of rescuers and volunteers confronted torrential rain and flooding to save the people. Mr Young’s photo has now been published on charity postage stamps and his image broadcast all over the world.

But for Mr Young, it was another day at the office, albeit a challenging one.

“It’s something that is still fresh in my mind . . . I remember how scared both of them (Montannah and Roslyn) were,” he said.

“We just went out and did our job.”

He believes it’s important for people to remember the impact the flood had on the community.

Mr Young described the stormy flight conditions for his mission to evacuate Montannah as the most dangerous he had ever seen in his 12-year career.