The free flow of the water on its way to Lake Eyre, just as it has happened sporadically since time immemorial, is the very thing graziers, conservationists and the region’s traditional owners have been striving to preserve.

After decades of campaigning, they were victorious in December when the Queensland government agreed to protect the virtually pristine network of river systems, wetlands and flood plains that form the Lake Eyre Basin.

It has designated a huge swath of western Queensland a no-go zone for “unconventional” oil and gas mining, effectively preventing practices like fracking and limiting future development in sensitive flood plains, where the slightest development can drastically alter water flows.

For Boulia grazier Rick Britton, the sight of the water spilling out over the channels and filling the flood plains over the past two months has been a reminder of why the protections are needed.

“To stop any water flow anywhere can have big impacts,” he said.

“We’ve got to be very careful even when we’re driving around here with a grader to put in our own roads. Even if you make a 20 to 50mm of a bank along a road you can starve yourself of 5000 acres from going underwater.”

The government’s enhanced protections were brought in to protect the 1600 grazing and agriculture jobs that rely on the environmental systems of the Channel Country, which directs the water from northern rainfall over the nutrient-rich desert plains.

The policy allows for the continued existence of conventional gas development in certain areas, as well as critical mineral extraction in the north of the catchment.

Mr Britton, who has also been the mayor of Boulia Shire for 16 years, said mining had contributed significantly to the region through valuable royalties.

There were certain places within the basin that it was not ­appropriate, he said. “In the flood zone, there is no way in the world they should be doing any activity, unless they put everything back exactly as it was,” he said.

The pristine basin, which covers one-sixth of the Australian land mass, is one of the world’s largest internally draining river systems.

The Queensland section had been protected from 2005 to 2014 under the Beattie government’s “wild rivers” laws, which were scrapped by the Newman government.

Ahead of the 2015 election, ­Annastacia Palaszczuk promised to reinstate the protections, but she quit as premier three weeks before her successor Steven Miles announced the promise would be fulfilled.

“We are eager to see the ­announced protections implemented to deliver certainty to the community that their ­livelihoods and the environment will be safeguarded,” Western Rivers ­Alliance co-ordinator Riley Rocco said.

“We expect the regulations to be delivered as promised so that the rivers continue to deliver life-giving rain from the tropics to Central Australia as they have done for thousands of years.

“These protections are a sign of what’s achievable with a common goal. Graziers, traditional owners and conservationists all recognise how important the Channel Country is.”

Rainfall over the Easter weekend pointed to a persistent wet season across the state, centralised around Cairns.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, rains were heaviest at Bartle View, which received 282mm between March 26 and April 1.

The rain continued in Cowley Beach on Monday, which saw 14.8mm from 9am to 3pm.