GYMPIE region families isolated and running out of food or medicine in the next big flood might find themselves climbing aboard a hovercraft.

In a Queensland first, Gympie Regional Council is attempting to get state funding to buy one or more hovercrafts so emergency services can reach stranded residents.

The council's local disaster co-ordinator, Ron Potter, has the support of Mayor Ron Dyne and Acting Mayor Tony Perrett in exploring the possibility, which was raised at the recent Get Ready forum in Gympie.

Mr Potter said the cost of a hovercraft was the same as a flood boat, but it would be able to access more places, crossing flooded waterways and the land in between.

"Flood boats can only get from one side of a creek to the other," he said.

"If you have to cross sev

eral creeks to get to a property they are no good.

"Getting a helicopter into those properties is expensive, dangerous and often not possible."

Viper rescue hovercrafts are already widely used in northern Australia and south-east Asia, but Gympie would be the first Queensland council to make the move.