TEN months ago Merv O'Neill's business was literally floating away with the Southside Holiday Village under about six inches of flood water for about three weeks.

If you had asked him back then his thoughts about the business' future, you might have received a very different answer to what he gave yesterday.

Part of the optimism relates to the railway workers who are regularly staying at the park.

Especially with a bus coming to pick them up in the morning and dropping them back after their shift in Gladstone.

"It's going very good," he said.

"I've got no concerns for the future.

"We are getting the leftovers from Gladstone."

It wasn't all roses and sunshine back earlier this year for most Central Queensland businesses.

"We were flooded in January," Mr O'Neill said.

"But we picked ourselves up and we haven't looked back.

"We were closed for about three weeks.

"We had no cash flow."

Mr O'Neill said in the 38 years that he has been there, January's floods was the second worst he'd seen.

"But that's in the past.

"Don't worry about what's happened. Worry about tomorrow."

Despite a struggling tourism sector, which has been hindered by the high Australian dollar, the summer's natural disasters in Queensland and free camping sites being more popular, Merv said: "It's never looked better."

Mr O'Neill's confidence isn't rare in Central Queensland these days, according to Suncorp Bank's survey figures.

He said railway workers weren't taking over the site, partially because they worked seven days on and seven days off, and there was still room for the families and grey nomads who want to stop over.

"Up north is suffering greatly," Mr O'Neill said.

He said he believed people were opting for overseas holidays at the moment because of the dollar.

"I've just come back from America where everything's half price."

But it's not just weather conditions or economic conditions that plays a part in business, with Mr O'Neill attributing his success to hard work, a great location being the first on the highway and having cabins.

"Cabins are the way to go."