Parts of NSW, Queensland brace for 'significant' rainfall from cyclone — as it happened (2025)

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Tropical Cyclone Alfred is currently acategory onesystem and is expected to intensify to acategory twocyclone tonight.

The weather bureau says it's expected to make landfall betweenBrisbaneand theSunshine Coastlate on Thursday or Friday morning.

Jessica van Vonderen and Jenny Woodward are standing by for Queensland’s 7pm TV news.

They’ll take you through today’s top developments, the latest weather warnings and forecasts.

Premier David Crisafulli will join them live.

Tune in to ABC TV at 7pm or stream the news live on iview:

The championships were set to be held at North Kirra from Friday to Sunday.

"The safety of our competitors, officials and staff comes first," carnival committee chair Nigel Ward says.

"We also needed to think about the safety around travel for our members to and from the event, given people come from all over Queensland to take part.

“The modelling and advice received is that conditions are expected to deteriorate throughout the week, with large-scale beach closures across the state already confirmed."

It's the first time many people in south-east Queensland will experience the direct effects of a tropical cyclone, given the last one was in 1974.

Here is a guide on how you can prepare for TC Alfred.

Reporting by Janel Shorthouse and Lottie Twyford

Gold Coast resident Narelle Russell and Kathleen Hudson from Logan decided to cut their holiday short and pack up.

"I'd like to just get home and away from this … because you just don't know … you can't play with Mother Nature," Ms Hudson said.

"It's unpredictable," added Ms Russell.

Jason Filippini, who manages Cotton Tree Holiday Park near Maroochydore and four other parks, said about 30 per cent of guests were staying in place, while most had left early or cancelled.

He said he would be working closely with the parks' permanent residents to ensure they had a safe place to evacuate to if needed and had been asking them to consider "alternate accommodation arrangements" for the end of the week.

“Creating a safe space for them, having some kind of speaker system setup to allow them to have music on,” Greenbank Vet Hospital's Stuart Unsworth told ABC Radio Brisbane.

“Some dogs respond really well to thunder jackets. These heavy weighted jackets can be really helpful so if your dog is really nervous, popping out and getting one of those can help them with managing some of the more severe symptoms of storm phobias.”

Dr Unsworth says some residents might be faced with trying to care for larger outdoor animals or farm animals.

“Make sure the outdoor facilities are as prepared as possible — trying to make your house and buildings as wind proof as possible."

Reporting by Danielle Mahe

Maureen Price said she had to wait about an hour and a half at the depot for sandbags at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast.

Despite the long queues, she said she was glad that she was able to get some sandbags to protect her home.

"There's going to be a lot of rain, and I was just worried about the water getting in under the glass sliding doors — so I just thought, just to be safe, I better get some sandbags," she says.

Reporting by Will Murray

Tanya Groom owns the passenger ferry, the Stradbroke Flyer, which services North Stradbroke Island.

She said their large vessel Calypso will dock on Wednesday and their other ferry Legacy will be on restricted services on Wednseday and Thursday.

"There's the possiblily of no services Friday, Saturday and Sunday, depending on the cyclone."

Meanwhile, vehicle ferries to the Southern Moreton Bay Islands will operate on a reduced schedule on Tuesday.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is about 500km east, north-east of Brisbane and 480km east of Maroochydore and is moving south-east at 14kph.

The BOM says people between Sandy Cape in Queensland and Grafton in NSW should consider what action they will need to take if the cyclone threat increases.

It is currently acategory onesystem and is expected to intensify to a category two cyclone tonight as its south-eastwards movement slows.

"Alfred's intensity may fluctuate between category one and two while it remains off the coast during Tuesday and Wednesday," the BOM says.

It's expected to make landfall between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast late on Thursday or Friday morning.

Damaging wind gusts of up to 120 kph are expected to develop between Tewantin and Grafton during Wednesday.

Heavy rainfall is forecast for south-east Queensland and northeastern NSW from Wednesday.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, if TC Alfred crosses as a cat 2 system, this is what you can expect:

• Destructive winds. Minor house damage.
• Significant damage to signs, trees and caravans.
• Heavy damage to some crops.
• Risk of power failure.
• Small craft may break moorings

A maximum mean wind speed is usually between 89–117 kph.

The typical strongest gust is 125–164 kph.

Reporting by Emma Pollard

Aleah Kaden lives in a low-lying home at Lota on Brisbane's bayside.

She's never been in a cyclone before and is preparing by clearing green waste and securing possible projectiles including her son's trampoline.

"I've got a lot of pot plants and loose things that I've got to tidy up," Ms Kaden says.

"We're going to flip the trampoline."

She said she's feeling "a bit nervous" and isn't sure what to expect.

Reporting by Janel Shorthouse and Lottie Twyford

Superintendent Craig Hawkins says people should consider the potential impact of their behaviour on others.

"What we don't want to see is people out doing foolish things that only cause additional and unnecessary actions ... that not only put emergency services at risk, but put yourselves at risk," he said.

Policing resources on the coast are being bolstered by the arrival of their colleagues from unaffected areas of the state ahead of TC Alfred's expected crossing of the coast later this week.

“Things will start to gear up Wednesday evening, throughout Thursday and Friday to the end of the week," Adrian Schrinner told ABC Radio Brisbane.

“We don’t know exactly where the cyclone will hit but we know it’s coming for south-east Queensland so all of south-east Queensland needs to be ready.

"All the way from K’gari all the way down to the border.”

He says trading hours for resource recovery centres have been extended to provide more time to clear yards of debris.

“People have been asked to consider tinned food, batteries for torches – what will you do if you don’t have power.”

Mr Schrinner says there are still 60,000 sandbags available after 40,000 have been taken.

“We’re producing more sandbags at every location today but that’s a process that takes some time," he says.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says CityCat ferries will be suspended from Tuesday until further notice following advice from Maritime Safety Queensland.

“Because of the size of the fleet, in order to make them safe, it’s going to take some time," he says.

"We’re making sure we’re getting all the vessels we can out of the water."

Senior Meteorologist Falem Hanniffy told ABC News Brisbane it could cross the coast as a category two system anywhere between Coffs Harbour andBundaberg.

However it’s looking more likely to be cross between Logan and the south end of the Wide Bay.

“If you are on or south of that system, expect to see the worst of the conditions with the system and certainly the flooding risk is likely to continue many days after the system moves inland and weakens.”

“It’s the rainfall with this system that will be the significant watch point for the following few days.”

Surf Life Saving Queensland Greg Cahill says it is not the time to go for a beach walk, swim or surf.

"Over the weekend we had 66 rescues, which is 66 rescues too many especially when the beaches are closed," he says.

"We had swimmers but also surfers and craft riders that were taking far too adventurous decisions to go out in surf that is way too big and too extreme for their abilities."

He says Queenslanders should stay out of the water.

"It is really severe powerful surf conditions and we are seeing examples of beach erosion so now is not the time to go to the beach," he says.

"When it's time and safe again we will let you know."

Reporting by Grace Whiteside

Mon Repos, near Bundaberg, supports the largest concentration of nesting marine turtles on the eastern Australian mainland.

Its turtle centre will reopen on Tuesday night after high tides and damaging swells smashed the beach over the weekend.

“We were possibly thinking we were going to get a major erosion event, but fortunately there’s been only minor erosion,” ranger Shane O’Connor says.

“There has been a lot of wave wash over the top of where the nests are and some deposition of sand, but in regards to the turtles, we’re confident it’s minimal damage.”

Mr O’Connor says rangers regularly relocate low-lying clutches to higher parts of the beach.

“So rarely, unless we have major erosion events, is this a problem, and because we didn't get much erosion, not many nests were exposed at all.”

However, ABC meteorologist Tom Saunders says there were four tropical cyclones within a 200km radius of Brisbane between 1971 and 1974.

He explains why we are seeing a cyclone now.

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Reporting by Emma Rennie

The NSW SES has been providing sandbags to people throughout the Northern Rivers region ahead of more severe conditions forecast.

At the Ballina collection site, Ros says she was feeling "a bit apprehensive".

But after the record-breaking 2022 floods, she says she “knows how to get prepared."

That sentiment was echoed by Lisa, who had also stocked up on fresh water and tinned food.

While they initially arrived to get sandbags for themselves, father and son team Chris and Kurt stayed to help others stock up.

"We didn't get any sandbags last time [in 2022], because it came up pretty quick … so this time we're a lot more prepared," Chris says.