Queensland's north is battening down the hatches with Tropical Cyclone Kirrily set to make landfall.
The strengthening system is predicted to cross the coast as a category two cyclone on Thursday night, between Ingham and Bowen, bringing destructive winds and torrential rain.
Gusts of 140km/h are forecast for the region between Ayr and Bowen, extending north to Ingham and including Townsville, and possibly south to Proserpine and the Whitsunday Islands.
Hamilton Island Airport registered wind gusts of 98 km/h overnight.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says intense rainfall that could cause "dangerous and life threatening flash flooding" is possible after the cyclone crosses the coast.
Kirrily was 420km east northeast of Townsville and 405km north northeast of Mackay at 4am AEST on Thursday and tracking west at 17km/h.
After hitting the coast in the vicinity of Townsville, the system will weaken to a tropical low and move inland, bringing heavy rain to central and western Queensland from Friday.
While the tropical low is no longer expected to head south, there could still be an "indirect impact" from the system in the state's southeast, according to the bureau.
Modelling suggests the system will head west towards the NT but tropical moisture will remain across Queensland into southeastern parts.
"The next trough that comes by through southeastern Queensland - an upper trough - will grab hold of all that moisture and potentially bring it our way," the BOM's Steven Hadley told ABC Radio.
"Potentially a bit of flash flooding through the weekend across southeast Queensland if we get any heavy storms come by."
Kirrily is the second cyclone to threaten Queensland in a month after Jasper, which was a category two system, caused record flooding that devastated the far north in December.
Premier Steven Miles has urged Queenslanders to prepare for the latest weather event.
"After the cyclone crosses the coast it's likely to weaken to a tropical low, but have very high levels of rainfall associated with it," he said.
"Depending on its path the rainfall is likely to cause flooding in parts of the state."
Australian Associated Press
