But while authorities have been warning residents to stay indoors as Cyclone Alfred approaches, die-hard surfers have been throwing caution to the increasing wind. "This is what we look forward to," said Jeff Weatherall as he waited for a jet ski to pick him up from Kirra beach and carry him into the big waves.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is forecast to cross the coast between the Queensland state capital Brisbane and the tourist city of Gold Coast to the south late Thursday or early Friday.

Significant damage and power outages are possible in the densely populated region of Queensland, where tropical cyclones impacts are not uncommon but direct landfalls are.

Cyclone Alfred - which has been downgraded from a cyclone to a tropical low - has caused flooding, damage to buildings and left thousands without power across the eastern coast of Australia. Millions of people across Queensland and north New South Wales have been affected.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Australia's Queensland state were without power on Sunday after Alfred, a downgraded tropical cyclone, brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Australia were without power on Sunday after ex-tropical cyclone Alfred brought damaging winds and heavy rains, sparking flood warnings with one person confirmed dead.