A Mackay man was rescued from a car roof by a backhoe in flood waters in north Queensland

A machine operator came to the rescue and made his way through meter-deep water to carry a man out of the floodwater with the shovel of his excavator.

After rescue crews decided the water was too strong, the Mirani man plowed through the rapids with his backhoe to bring the stranded man to safety.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: A Queensland man was carried out of a car in a backhoe and found himself stuck in the flood waters

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The man was stranded on the roof of his car amidst swirling tides after a sudden deluge drained more than 200 millimeters in a matter of hours.

A video made exclusively available to 7NEWS shows the terrified motorist clinging to the roof of his car in Mirani, west of Mackay, after getting into trouble in the raging water.

The man is then seen being carried to safety in a backhoe shovel.

Will Graham said his boss picked up the motorist and took him to safety.

The car just “turned the corner and hit the water I guess,” Graham said.

“He was flooded.”

Once out of danger, Graham said his boss gave the driver “a couple of beers and some dry clothes.”

Rain fell hard and fast over Mackay and its environs, filling gutters, cutting roads and pooling in paddocks.

Fenners Road received the most rain overnight at 222mm.

Coen recorded 127mm while Springsure Creek to the west recorded 117mm.

“By the end of next week, many locations could be around 150 percent of their average January rainfall,” said Harry Clarke, Senior Meteorologist.

More rain forecast

The rain shows no sign of slowing down across the state, driven by the moisture left in its wake by former tropical cyclone Ellie – making it difficult to predict where the strongest falls will be.

“Anywhere north from St. Lawrence all the way up to Cairns and well inland there is a risk of seeing these serious falls,” Clarke said.

An even larger system could be looming on the horizon, with the Bureau now closely monitoring the forecast for a potential cyclone

“Some of the models show that a tropical depression is developing in the Coral Sea over the next week,” Clarke said.

-with Jordan Bissell