Ex-cyclone Trevor is dumping rain over the Northern Territory's parched interior, with drought-declared Queensland shires waiting for their share of the storm's silver lining.
Trevor forced mass evacuations in the Gulf of Carpentaria before it made landfall on Saturday as a category four cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 250km/h.
The storm at its peak rivalled the intensity of Cyclone Tracy which ravaged Darwin in 1974.
It's now a tropical low, sparking warnings of possible flash flooding in the territory's interior, northeast of Alice Springs.
The Bureau of Meteorology expects the system to continue its eastward track and bring rain in coming days to western Queensland shires that are fully drought declared.
"A weak ridge will persist along the east coast of Queensland over the next few days and will combine with ex-tropical cyclone Trevor to drag a very moist, tropical air mass over much of Queensland through the week," the bureau said on Monday.
Moderate to heavy rain is expected across southwestern Queensland and later in central and southern parts of the interior as the system heads back towards Queensland's east coast.
Residents of some Gulf communities have returned home, including almost 300 people who left Groote Eylandt before Trevor hit.
But evacuees from the nearby mainland community of Borroloola are still waiting for the all clear to go home, as Northern Territory authorities begin damage assessments in earnest.
Evacuation centres in Darwin and Katherine remain open, with hundreds of people awaiting news about how roads and other major infrastructure has fared.
Meteorologist Aditi Sharan said the ex-cyclone was already producing good rainfall over the Northern Territory, and Queensland's Channel Country and Maranoa and Warrego district were also likely to cop a drenching.
Australian Associated Press
