{"id":319604,"date":"2026-03-03T12:55:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/319604\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:55:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:55:13","slug":"queensland-coast-braces-for-potential-cyclone-as-ingham-enjoys-rainfall-reprieve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/319604\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland coast braces for potential cyclone as Ingham enjoys rainfall reprieve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Large parts of Queensland are on flood watch as a tropical low, with a moderate chance of reaching cyclone strength this week, lingers in the Coral Sea.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Bruce Highway has reopened to one lane of traffic after flooding in the watch area.<\/p>\n

The critical road was cut between Townsville and Cairns, north of Ingham, yesterday, leaving truckies and travellers stranded.<\/p>\n

\"Line<\/p>\n

Flooding has closed the Bruce Highway between Townsville and Cairns. (Supplied: Shakir Vaughns)<\/p>\n

A monsoonal trough has established over the Cape York Peninsula, driving more wet weather over saturated north Queensland catchments in the interim.<\/p>\n

The tropical low, 29U, in the Coral Sea is about 900 kilometres east of Cairns.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

Tropical low 29U is lingering in the Coral Sea off Queensland. The weather bureau warns it could form into a cyclone later in the week. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)<\/p>\n

The Far North Queensland coast is already sodden from consistent heavy falls.<\/p>\n

Since 9am yesterday, some areas have received more than 200 millimetres of rain.<\/p>\n

The Mossman Treatment Plant received 225mm, the Rex Creek Intake station had 300mm and 118mm fell on Craiglie.<\/p>\n

\"Map<\/p>\n

The weather bureau’s forecast shows tropical low 29U reaching the Queensland coast from Friday, with a 25 per cent chance of forming into a cyclone. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)<\/p>\n

Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Morgan Pumper said the low would likely track towards Queensland’s North Tropical Coast, where communities had copped hundreds of millimetres of rainfall since Saturday.<\/p>\n

“It is expected to move south-west as we see that possibility of a tropical cyclone increase to moderate on Thursday or Friday,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We can see it moving over the coast between Cairns and Mackay later this week.”<\/p>\n

She said the system would weaken as it moved over land, either as a tropical low or cyclone.<\/p>\n

Loading…Major flooding<\/p>\n

The BOM has issued a flood watch for the western Cape York Peninsula and North Tropical Coast.<\/p>\n

Flood warnings remain in place<\/a> for the Herbert, Norman, Flinders, and Nicholson and Leichardt Rivers.<\/p>\n

The BOM warned further rainfall was a risk for the days ahead and would result in rapid rises in the catchments.<\/p>\n

Roads throughout the sugar-producing Hinchinbrook Shire were cut by floodwaters after the region received rainfall in excess of 285mm between Sunday and yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"Water<\/p>\n

Streets throughout the town centre of Ingham were cut on Monday. (Supplied: Sue Barany)<\/p>\n

Hinchinbrook Mayor Ramon Jayo said no bursts of heavy rain were expected in the short term and the Herbert River had peaked.<\/p>\n

“It appears that the river is starting to fall. It will take some time, but the worst of it seems to be over for now,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is going to take two or three days at least for the river to return to normal levels.”<\/p>\n

The region’s Local Disaster Management Group will remain on alert as the Hinchinbrook Shire monitors tropical low 29U.<\/p>\n

Cr Jayo said the region, which was devastated by flooding to homes in 2025, had been vigilant throughout the summer.<\/p>\n

“The community has been in a state of preparation since January because the river has been jumping up and down like a yo-yo,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is still a bit too far out to predict what its movements are going to be, but once we get to Thursday we will have a good idea.<\/p>\n

“All we can do is watch and wait.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Large parts of Queensland are on flood watch as a tropical low, with a moderate chance of reaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[67880,17388,17387,85,46,72060,12784,1864,141,145,119494,5174,1481],"class_list":["post-319604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-cyclone","tag-disaster","tag-flood","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-prepare","tag-queensland","tag-rain","tag-science","tag-space","tag-townsville","tag-watch","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}