Heavy rains have again hit a flood-prone tourist attraction in Tasmania’s north, just as the region was getting over the catastrophic June floods.

A weekend of heavy rainfall across northern river catchments has meant Launceston’s Cataract Gorge is copping a torrent of water from the South Esk River.

Over 200 millimetres of rainfall was recorded at Gray in Tasmania’s north-east at the weekend.

Water levels at Cataract Gorge last summer (top) and November 2016. Photo: Supplied/ABC

Launceston City Council natural environment manager Barry Pickett said while the area is prone to flooding, it was rare for it to happen so many times in a year.

“Four is probably exceptional, I wouldn’t want to see too many more than that,” he said.

Water levels in the gorge are expected to peak on Wednesday, with 1100 cubic metres of water per second (cumecs) forecast – however Mr Pickett said that was well down on the June flood event which devastated the region, during which the rate of water was measured at over 2000 cumecs.

“We’re still recovering from the June flood … and because we’ve had so much rainfall over the winter, it’s been difficult to complete a lot of the repair work up there.

“We were planning to paint the pool this week. We’re still debating whether or not we’ll go ahead or defer to next year.”

“Any likelihood of the pool opening could potentially be three to four weeks away, which is a bit unfortunate.”

“Our people … they do get frustrated. They do a lot of good work up there and then Mother Nature comes in and destroys some of that.”

Nervous wait for flood peak

State Emergency Service northern regional manager Mhairi Revie said the peak of the floodwater was now expected to reach Cressy, just south of Launceston, later than expected.

Farmers on the Macquarie River, near the area, were on Monday urged to move stock and machinery to higher ground, ahead of widespread inundation of low-lying farmland.

“We thought originally it might be coming through this morning but in fact, it’s due to peak later on at Cressy, probably about 7:00pm mark tonight,” she said.

“Farmers have more time that originally anticipated to get livestock and equipment off that floodplain.”

Ms Revie said the Macquarie River was likely to peak between 4 and 5 metres.

“People who were experiencing the June floodwaters – we’re talking about roughly half the amount of water going through that area,” she said.

“No homes or anything like that are expected to inundate at all.”

Low-lying farmland around Hadspen was also expected to be affected by rising rivers.

Northern Midlands Mayor David Downie said council staff had been busily preparing for several days.

“(Staff) have been running around, putting up notices on roads as they become inundated and watching bridges. It’s been a fairly busy and hectic time,” he said.

“They’ve moved some of the caravans to higher ground at the caravan park.”

-ABC