Western Queensland rivers flood but the region remains in drought

When the heavens opened on Christmas Day, western Queenslanders dared to hope that the drought just might break.

With the region being drought-stricken for almost a decade, some properties received their best rainfall totals in years.

The dry riverbeds and dusty floodplains that characterise the outback terrain have been transformed, as if by magic, into surging creeks, swollen rivers and lush green landscapes.

But the drought is not over.

For…