A tropical storm is expected to make landfall on Australia's eastern coast on Saturday morning as tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and more than 230,000 households left without power.

Millions of residents along Australia’s eastern coast are bracing for the arrival of a very slow-moving storm, the strongest tropical cyclone to threaten the region in more than 50 years.

adding that it was "crucially important" the public did not "dismiss" the storm. "It really doesn't matter to us whether it's been downgraded from a tropical cyclone to a weather event," he said.

Destructive wind gusts of up to 155km/h (96m/h) could develop from Thursday afternoon and tropical cyclone Alfred is expected to land as a category-two storm early on Friday morning near Brisbane ...