The Premier has committed to funding permanent flood levees in Rockhampton and threw down the challenge to the federal government to follow suit on Friday.

Annastacia Palaszczuk admitted it would be more cost-effective in the long-term to build levees, but said funding was needed in the short-term.

The Fitzroy River reached a height of 8.9 metres in Rockhampton early on Friday morning, which was only 50 centimetres short of the 1954 flood peak and just shy of the nine metres predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology.

More than 200 homes had water over their floorboards and about 3000 homes and businesses were cut off.