Flying into Brisbane, we were warned that it might be a bit bumpy on approach. Something about an extreme weather event off the Queensland coast.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Alfred, a powerful, long-lived, and erratic tropical cyclone was threatening to bring severe damage to South East Queensland and/or northern New South Wales. As the seventh named storm, and sixth severe tropical cyclone of the 2024–25 cyclone season, Alfred originated from a tropical low in the Coral Sea on 20 February.
Expected to be one of the most significant weather events in recent Australian history, Cyclone Alfred prompted warnings and evacuations in South East Queensland, and Northern New South Wales, an area which has rarely seen direct impacts from tropical cyclones. In fact the last cyclone to hit the Brisbane area was in 1974. (Yet another thing from the exciting 1970s!)
We are at Robin’s place which is about 100 km north of Brisbane and 10 km inland! Alfred has been lurking off the coast as it dithered south past us. It then turned sharp right and headed for the coast about 40 kms south of here. I understand it then got stuck between two ridges of high pressure and hovered just offshore where it reduced from a category 2 cyclone to a tropical storm before it hit land on 8 March.
Waves that came in ahead of the cyclone have been massive. Some reports said 10-14 metres as measured by offshore wave monitoring buoys. I’d say closer to 3-4 m on the beaches here. Still mighty threatening! And they were much bigger further south.
Close examination of the last photo reveals a wing foiler mixing it with the surf (on the extreme right)! Hope he’s wearing a life jacket!
Literally, trillions of tons of beach have been relocated offshore leaving enormous sand cliffs.
A similar scene from near Surfers Paradise – not my photo.
Because these cyclonic things rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere, by far the worst effects of Alfred have been felt to the south of the system. The area from about Brisbane for a couple of hundred kms south into north NSW has had “interesting” amounts of rain (400-mm-in-a-day-sort-of-interesting!). There has also been a lot of wind. Power lines and trees down all over the place with up to 600,000 people without power at one point.
When Alfred landed, we had had maybe 10 mm of rain at Kiels Mountain and, at most, a strong breeze. However, it could have been a very different story if the system had swung right a few days earlier. We appeared to have located ourselves close to the eye of the storm!
We have been walking on the coast to see the waves, along the Maroochy river, and up in the hills over the last few days and we didn’t get wet once. Robin described the weather as very “British”. Calm, murky, grey and drizzly. However, everywhere has been closed. Shops, schools and government offices. Ferries have been cancelled and the airports shut. Panic buying has set in, but has been largely limited to bread, bottled water and sand-bags. But the roads have been spookily quiet.
Montville, a touristic town in the hills, is normally jammed. Impossible to park. When we visited just before the storm landed at Bribie Island we were the only car in town. Everybody (except us) was hunkered down playing cards and doing jigsaws and not working. Spooky. It seemed like the traffic was as it used to be 30 years ago. So – we have been very lucky although very worried earlier. We did have some spectacular rain for a couple of days as the storm dissipated. This brought massive flooding to many areas. Indeed the access road to Robin’s place was extensively flooded and I got into severe trouble for driving onto the flooded road. We had to reverse out – no room to turn round. Not my best moment!
That’s not me driving Robin’s big truck, I hasten to add! For three days after the innundation, we had to avoid the floods by taking huge diversions through the high country to the north.
Another effect of the torrential rain was that the pool filled with water (handily, without having to pay for town water!). But the floods also introduced a different sort of hazard.
A Small-Eyed Eastern Snake. Found curled up in the pool skimmer. Not nice. Distinctly venomous. Definitely one to be relocated into the woods!
Moving swiftly on … The Coast gradually opened up again. Sand-bags were discarded. Windows were uncovered and un-taped. The caravan parks were opened and a few hardy campers led the stampede back to the coast. The slowest thing to sort itself out was the inland flooding. Days after the deluge, many roads inland from Brisbane remained impassable. We saw evidence of literally hundreds of flood-ways and river crossings having been swamped a week later as we made our way to Stanthorpe, 300 kms to the south-west. Miles of fencing and other obstructions were decorated with grass up to a metre above ground level
A lot of gravel roads and even some sealed roads were suffering from serious wash-out. There would have been no chance of us succeeding in crossing the low lying lands and flood plains on our way inland.
But cross them we did (a week later) – but that’s another story!
I reported on that 1974 cyclone as a young journalist working at the Tweed Daily News at Murwillumbah. Beach erosion was horrific on that occasion, and flooding reached (then) record levels in some river systems.
There was another one in 1954 which hit the Gold Coast, but in those days the Gold Coast was largely just three towns – Coolangatta at the southern end; Southport at the north (go figure) and Burleigh in the middle. In between those centres was largely bush and/or sand mining.
Looks like you escaped Alfred relatively unscathed. A different picture in Carindale, just South of Brisbane, with over 400mm rain over the four days, lots of high winds, and lost power for 15 hours at the end, but otherwise OK- all back to normal now.