Queensland's Wagner family was held responsible for the 2011 Grantham flood by a 60 Minutes story "absolutely pregnant with insinuation and implication", a Brisbane court has heard.

Wagner Group's Denis Wagner and his brothers are suing the Nine Network and associated broadcasters over the 60 Minutes story they argue defamed them.

The Grantham flash flood killed 12 people and destroyed more than 50 homes.

Denis Wagner and his brothers are suing the Nine Network for defamation. ( AAP: Dan Peled )

Last year, a commission of inquiry by Walter Sofronoff QC cleared the family of any responsibility for the deaths, ruling their quarry played an insignificant role in the flood.

Mr Sofronoff said Mr Wagner, who owned the quarry, and his family had been unfairly targeted as the culprit for the flood.

In hearing an application to strike out the statement of claim, Justice David Boddice was told "spooky music", emotive language and a vivid description of the tragic 2011 Grantham floods left viewers believing the Wagner family was responsible.

Tom Blackburn QC for the Wagners referred to the transcript of the 60 Minutes story, which described the floods as a "man-made disaster which should have been avoided but wasn't".

He highlighted another passage by reporter Michael Usher, saying: "That was not just a freak flood but a man-made catastrophe".

Mr Blackburn said it was "absolutely pregnant with insinuation and implication".

He said it did not matter that the program did not state the family was responsible for building the quarry wall that collapsed, because the suggestion that steps could and should have been taken to prevent the disaster implied the Wagners, one of Queensland's wealthiest families, were responsible.

The remains of a property in Grantham after flooding tore through the town. ( ABC TV )

Lawyers for Nine argued the 60 Minutes program was about the previous 2012 flood inquiry not getting to the bottom of what happened in Grantham and its residents feeling they had not been heard.

Justice Boddice countered that if that was the thrust of the program, the Wagners need not have been mentioned at all — the program should have focused on the first commission of inquiry and the quarry wall.

Defence lawyer Rob Anderson QC replied: "It's a story."

Justice Boddice said: "Then you wouldn't have millionaires being referred to and you wouldn't have got the salacious bit that obviously they need for these types of programs."

Mr Blackburn said the way the program referred to the Wagners as "one of the Australia's wealthiest families, concrete giants" who declined to be interviewed, also built the Toowoomba family's case for defamation.

A railway crossing at Grantham littered with debris from floodwaters in 2011. ( Dave Hunt: AAP Image )

"That passage comes at a time where the viewer has been roused to an entirely justifiable and understandable state of indignation about the fact that the truth has been suppressed, the truth of what caused this terrible devastation has not yet come out," he said.

He said the program stated that at the time of the flood the quarry was owned by the Wagners, but no-one else was suspected as being the unidentified person who caused the catastrophe.

"No-one else is identified except the Wagners," he said.

"They are the people the program repeatedly blames for not taking the steps that should have been taken.

"This is a viewer who is told very clearly that there is smoke and Channel Nine have done nothing to remove the suggestion of fire.

"They've said, we're telling the truth for the first time. This incredible devastation and tragedy was caused by the collapse of the quarry wall. It's a disaster that could have been avoided and wasn't.

"They are the people the program repeatedly blames for not taking the steps that should have been taken."

Justice Boddice has reserved his decision on whether the defamation case will proceed.

At an earlier hearing in April, he ruled the story did not necessarily imply the Wagners were "responsible" for the quarry wall breaking during the floods and struck out part of the Wagners claim.

Justice Boddice did not give a date for handing down his decision.