• Tropical Cyclone Alfred is approaching Queensland, bringing high winds and heavy rain, putting 20,000 homes at risk.
• New Zealanders in Queensland are changing flights to avoid the cyclone’s impact, as events are cancelled.
• Authorities warn of destructive winds and extensive flooding and urge residents to relocate before conditions worsen.

By Kate Green of RNZ

New Zealanders in Queensland are battening down the hatches or changing their flights home to make a hasty getaway from the state as Tropical Cyclone Alfred approaches.

One man who flew to Brisbane for the now-cancelled Green Day concert said, like most fans, he was disappointed but completely understood the reasons behind the cancellation.

Cyclone Alfred is set to bring high winds and heavy rain later today.

Modelling shows 20,000 homes in Brisbane are at risk from storm surges and flooding.

The category 2 cyclone made an abrupt westerly turn on Tuesday and began tracking towards the Australian mainland. It is expected to make landfall early on Friday morning.

“Tropical Cyclone Alfred is already bringing gale to storm-force winds, damaging surf and abnormally high tides to the southern Queensland and northern New South Wales coasts; however, areas further inland will begin to experience the onset of damaging to destructive winds and heavy to locally intense rain later today and on Thursday,” Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology posted on social media.

Brisbane airport on 5 March. Photo / Supplied/RNZ

The areas most at risk are Brighton, Windsor, Ashgrove, Morningside, Rocklea, Coopers Plains, Carina, Sandgate, Hemmant, Lota, Tingalpa, Indooroopilly, Albion, Bardon and Wynnum West.

Ryan Allen, a Wellingtonian who flew to Brisbane on Tuesday for the concert, said luckily his mum lived in Wynnum, so it hadn’t been a wasted trip.

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“Although expensive, [the trip] was definitely worth it to see Mum,” Allen said.

“Had a chicken parm at the pub last night, and that kind of helped the sorrows a little bit.”

He said he heard about the concert cancellation on social media, and that was quickly followed by an email from the ticketing company and a social media story from the band.

“[It’s] incredibly fair enough, for the safety of all the people working, as well as the audience.”

Ryan Allen has cut his trip to Australia short. Photo / Supplied/RNZ

He said he quickly jumped on the Air New Zealand app and moved his flight forward by a day, as it seemed unlikely his original Thursday flight would go ahead.

The turbulence on the flight over had been intense for the last hour of the journey, which the captain informed passengers was because of the weather system, and Allen hoped the return journey was less bumpy.

On a visit to the supermarket on Tuesday, he said the shelves resembled Covid-19 times. Bottled water and bread shelves were bare, which was “quite an eerie feeling, actually”.

RNZ employee Simon Dickinson, who was in Noosa on a week-long holiday, said he had also shifted flights forward to Wednesday morning, fearing not being able to leave on the original flight on Saturday.

“We thought, well we’re going to be stuck there for a few days, with a high probability of not being able to get to Brisbane airport because it’s a very flood-prone zone around that area there.”

He said he spoke to a couple of people on the way through customs, who were doing the same.

He said it wasn’t all bad outside, along the Noosa coastline, the weather system was creating ideal surfing conditions.

“The surfies were just going mad,” Dickinson said. “It was just beautiful surfing. There were many, many people there.”

Jane Golding, from the Bureau of Meteorology, said gale-force winds were recorded near Cape Byron this morning.

Golding said the bureau expects the wind to pick up on Wednesday and increase over the next three days, causing large waves.

She said that will be followed by heavy rainfall that could cause extensive flooding.

“The key message is that we can expect from this system, along with destructive wind and extensive flooding, most likely major flooding as well as the potential for some dangerous and life-threatening flash flooding,” she says.

NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing said emergency services were dealing with “three natural disasters in one”: a combination of strong winds, rainfall and high tides.

Wassing said authorities expected “significant” rainfall that could lead to widespread inundation and isolation.

“It is difficult to predict the rainfall but we are planning for significant rainfall that will see significant inundation, isolation and potential need for evacuation,” he said.

“I want people to act now, relocate now before those circumstances are occurring.”

Officials will open 12 evacuation centres from 4pm Wednesday (local time).

More than 100 schools in New South Wales have closed.