Annastacia Palaszczuk wants to get a large air tanker to water bomb the ever more frequent bushfires that ravage Queensland.
But the premier first wants to know if Prime Minister Scott Morrison has any "appetite" to have an Australian fleet of such aircraft since other states also suffer from bushfires.
"If we can't get a fleet, we'll look at going it alone," she told reporters on Monday.
"We probably wouldn't be able to get it this year because we'd have to work out where it was coming from, whether it's leased, whether it's purchased, but it is something that I honestly believe we do need."
Queensland has had a destructive start to the fire season, with dozens of structures burned to the ground and mass evacuations ordered to keep people safe from the fires.
Dry, gusty thunderstorms are forecast to sweep through tinder-dry southeast on Tuesday, fanning existing fires and sparking new ones.
The Bureau of Meteorology says the storms will have a lot of lightning and very little rain, and could build up anywhere between the Queensland-New South Wales border and Kingaroy in the afternoon.
"The balance is going to be on the bad side of the ledger, because there won't be too much rainfall," senior forecaster Jonte Hall told AAP.
"There will be a fair bit of cloud-to-ground lightning which has the potential to start new fires."
Mr Hall said high temperatures and "gusty and erratic winds" would make fire fighting conditions volatile before a cold front pushes through late on Tuesday evening.
More than 40 fires were burning across the state on Monday, with officials warning some could burn for months because the ground is bone-dry in inaccessible terrain and there's no significant rain in sight.
Authorities have spent the last few days strengthening containment lines around blazes across the state.
The Sarabah fire remains of the most concern to authorities because it is burning in valleys within the Scenic Rim that are hard to access.
That fire has destroyed 11 homes and significantly damaged the historic Binna Burra mountain lodge.
About 70 lodge employees are out of work while the owners start to rebuild.
Police are investigating whether it was lit deliberately.
Ms Palaszczuk has asked her treasurer and minister for fire and emergency services about the cost of buying or leasing a big air tanker.
"Because we are getting more and more frequent bushfires and unfortunately it's becoming more and more evident across Queensland, so it's something we're going to give serious consideration to," she said.
Australian Associated Press
