More than 10 dams in south-east Queensland are overflowing after steady rain but the region’s largest, Wivenhoe Dam north-west of Brisbane, has missed out, authorities say.

Key issues:

Residents in south-east Queensland are being asked to conserve water as dams central to the region have not received as much rainfall as their coastal counterparts during the deluge over the last week.

Wivenhoe Dam is 80 kilometres north-west of Brisbane and hit its lowest levels in a decade last month.

Seqwater spokesman Mike Foster said Wivenhoe Dam was south-east Queensland’s ” most important dam” and its water levels were currently “a tick over 37 per cent”.

Mr Foster said while formal water restrictions were not yet in place, Seqwater was continuing to implement a drought response plan for the region.

He said Wivenhoe Dam’s low levels are a result of consecutive “failed … wet seasons”.

“When you look at the history of  Wivenhoe  from  2011  to 2013, 2015 , big rainfall events have filled those storages, unfortunately we’ve had failed consecutive wet seasons,” he said.

Over the last two weeks, Seqwater had recorded 150 litres water use per person, which Mr Foster said was “pretty good”.

“It seems a little bit abnormal that after the rainfall we’ve had, that we’re continuing to ask people to … save water,” he said.

“We really need the community to continue to keep  that  low … water use, particularly as we go into what are our typical dry months of the year over autumn and winter.”

Looking further ahead, Mr Marshall said climate predictions suggested the area would not be receiving much rainfall in the next couple of months either.

“The climate outlook is suggesting a drier-than-average period for April and May as well,” Mr Marshall said.

Water release is scheduled into Wivenhoe

The significant weather event that brought heavy showers across the region made the grid total rise by 1 per cent, but the lighter showers towards the centre meant the ground was not wet enough to start flows into Wivenhoe Dam.

Seqwater has scheduled a release from Somerset Dam into Wivenhoe Dam this week.

“We started to do some operational releases from Somerset in the Wivenhoe, so folks who jump on our website who follow dam levels very closely certainly will see an increase slightly over the next week or so,” Mr Foster said.

Seqwater said it hoped the release would “balance lake levels” and cause a rise of more than half-a-metre of water in Wivenhoe Dam.