Lots of rain over the holiday break

LIKE a long lost aunt bustling back to rearrange the family table, La Nina has up-ended Australia's climate system this year

Goodnight Scrub local Scott Lucas and his dog Zac are evacuated by boat so they can spend Christmas in Bundaberg, Queensland. Picture: John Wilson

LIKE a long lost aunt bustling back to rearrange the family table, La Nina has up-ended Australia's climate system this year.

The disruption looks set to continue through the Christmas period, and possibly into the decades beyond.

Queenslanders can expect to swap their Santa hats for sou'westers as their state cops another drenching over the weekend; while those in Western Australia should stock up on sunscreen and ice as a mini heatwave pushes temperatures towards the 40s.

Territorians can expect the usual summer thunderstorms in the north and drier conditions further south. Those seeking respite from heatwaves and downpours should head to the southern states, where forecasters expect pleasantly warm and dry conditions to prevail in South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria over the weekend.

Except, that is, in Melbourne, where a weak front crossing the state on Boxing Day could bring weather conditions as unsettled as the recent cricket scores.

The weather in NSW will take its lead from the state government following the latest opinion polls, by looking rather grey.

Bureau of Meteorology climate meteorologist Harvey Stern said the tenor of Australia's two-tone temperature and rainfall maps was being set by La Nina -- or El Loco as some say she is better called.

La Nina is a natural climatic phenomenon that brings warmer sea-surface temperatures and changed weather patterns around Australia and elsewhere.

"We've got a very strong La Nina event at the moment and that has produced lots of rain over much of the country, and lots of humidity," Dr Stern said.

"If you go back to the 1970s, where we had a similar, very strong La Nina event, we had widespread flooding in many parts of Australia then, too."

Australia's eastern states have been battered by floods this year, with the final damage bill expected to reach into the billions.

Parts of Queensland and NSW are still under water, and shack owners and Christmas campers in the Riverland region, along the lower reaches of the Murray River in South Australia, were sand-bagging yesterday to prepare for floodwaters working their way downstream.

In the town of Sedan, 75km from Adelaide, Ashley Brown, his partner Susan Anderson and local children were making the most of the unusual conditions.

"Heaps of people have had it worse than us. It's great to see the river come up like this," Mr Brown said, predicting that the floodwaters would revitalise the Murray's parched Lower Lakes.

Dr Stern said the silver lining to La Nina's clouds was that they offered respite from the extreme temperatures that afflicted many areas during the past decade of drought.

"It's been wetter and more humid, but without the extreme heat," he said. "That's typical of a La Nina event."

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind yesterday said the rain was "quite literally putting a dampener on our industry", which was still struggling after the economic downturn and with a high Australian dollar.

In Caloundra, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, Phil and Shae Lister and their family were preparing to spend a damp Christmas indoors. "You make your own fun," Mr Lister said.

More than 200mm of rain is expected to fall on southeast Queensland in coming days.