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Up to 20,000 Brisbane homes are set to be flooded according to Queensland's state premier.
Australian authorities have urged thousands of residents to leave the outskirts of the country's third-largest city and many more have laid sandbags to try and protect their homes.
The military has also been drafted in to help in the search for dozens of people missing in the city of Toowoomba and the surrounding area after it was hit by devastating flash floods.
At least 11 people are known to have died and 77 are missing after torrents of water tore through Queensland state's Lockyer Valley.
Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard told Sky News: "People do have to be prepared for the death toll to rise.
"I'm very concerned - this is a widespread flood crisis.
"I know the people of Brisbane and Ipswich are bracing for the flood peak.
"This is a very difficult time, a heartbreaking time."
Families have been moved to evacuation centres in Brisbane and neighbouring Ipswich, wheer a third of the town is expected to be submerged.
Around 80 suburbs are expected to be flooded in Brisbane when the swollen Brisbane River bursts its banks, affecting around 20,000 properties.
The Prime Minister paid tribute to the "fantastic" emergency services who have been working with defence forces to manage the situation and coordinate rescue efforts.
She also praised Australians for "pulling together" and showing "a lot of care and concern for each other."
Queensland premier, Anna Bligh urged residents to stick together.
She said: "If you live on high ground, now is the time to reach out and offer help to neighbours ... and offer a bed for the night."
Gary McGowan, a businessman from a western suburb in Brisbane, said: "It's taking on new proportions and getting worse by the minute."
Bread and vegetables have already sold out in some supermarkets in the city as residents stock up ahead fo the flood peak.
And crocodiles at the Sunshine Coast zoo, founded by the late Steve Irwin, have been tied up so they can't escaped in the deluge.
The Queensland floods have affected an enormous area, the size of France and Germany combined.
The disaster has brought the state's coking coal export industry to a virtual standstill, hit tourism and devastated agriculture.
So far the cost of the natural disaster is expected to reach $5bn, or £3.1bn.
SKYNEWS
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