As ex-cyclone drenches north, thunderstorm risk reaches Brisbane

Communities are bracing for “life-threatening flash flooding” as the remnants of ex-cyclone Koji move westward across Queensland’s north, threatening regions still recovering from record rain in the new year.

Koji was declared a cyclone on Saturday evening, and had been expected to cross the coast as a category 2 storm.

In the early hours of Sunday it was downgraded to category 1, then weakened below tropical cyclone intensity as it crossed the coast between Ayr and Bowen about 10am.

Speaking in Mackay on Monday, Premier David Crisafulli said government disaster response efforts were dropping medicine and supplies to cattle in western Queensland regions, where almost 50,000 animals had been lost.

“These are early days,” he said.

“As graziers find the time and courage to fill out the forms, those losses are going to increase.”

Crisafulli praised local communities for their preparedness that he said meant no lives had so far been lost as the storm made landfall, and urged inland communities to remain vigilant to flooding.

“At this stage we’re dealing with around about 20 wrecked vessels along different parts of the coast,” he said.

Early Monday, the Bureau of Meteorology issued warnings for intense rainfall and flash flooding in inland regions between Mackay and Gladstone.

Meteorologist Christie Johnson said the state’s south-east would probably receive scattered thunderstorms, which would centre on the Sunshine Coast hinterland region and travel south through the week.

“That risk of severe thunderstorms [on Tuesday] extends down to Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and maybe even into the Northern Rivers in New South Wales and into parts of the Darling Downs as well,” she said.

About six rivers in Central and North Queensland were expected to flood in coming days, including the Connors and Isaac rivers, which the weather bureau predicted would exceed flood levels experienced during ex-tropical cyclone Oswald.

Johnson said the main concern was flash flooding, rather than swollen rivers, and the storm moving west across the week, which would bring rain to areas still recovering from flooding.

“It’ll make its way into the Northern Territory, and potentially, if it even manages to keep itself intact, it might reach as far as the Kimberley,” she said.

“We’ve got a sort of 10 per cent to 15 per cent chance that if it does reach the waters off the north coast of Western Australia, it could actually redevelop into a cyclone.”

She said some of the heaviest rainfall overnight on Sunday was inland of Rockhampton, such as in the township of Clermont, which received about 25 per cent of its average annual rainfall in 12 hours.

“We’ve seen quite a lot of heavy rainfall around that part of the world, including some that are definitely breaching the heavy rainfall thresholds,” Johnson said.

She said flash flooding and swollen rivers were threatening Yatton, a major cattle farming property inland of Rockhampton.

Five people were rescued by SES overnight on Sunday, and 158 requests for help were made by Monday morning.

Queensland police said 60 additional SES personnel had been deployed in the most affected regions.

Crisafulli said affected coastal communities were quickly recovering, with 20,000 homes reconnected to power and all ferry services resuming.

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