Ex. Tropical Cyclone Alfred: the impact on Coochiemudlo Island
By Angela Hoskins
In March 2025, Tropical Cyclone Alfred’s path down the south coast of Queensland was erratic and hard to predict. The video below, of Alfred’s path, was posted to Coochie Community Facebook with one comment simply stating ‘Drunk Alfred’! Hats off to the weather experts and government reps did well with keeping us informed about what to expect.
The cyclone, a Category 2 during its southbound, roundabout journey, crossed the mainland north of Brisbane as a tropical low on Sunday 9 March 2025.
Our island community, along with other residents of Southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales, were glued to the news and weather reports for updates to the cyclone’s approach. The path and pace of the TC Alfred confounded experts who had to adjust their predictions and timelines for communities and households busily preparing for the wild weather event.
At one point, the Bureau of Metereology factored in the chance that the cyclone could escalate to a Category 3. If residents weren’t already feeling fear, this news ramped up trepidation and concern. Most of us haven’t experienced a cyclone first hand; this far down the Queensland coast, we rarely experience weather events classed as a cyclone. While tropical lows are generally annual events, TC Alfred was promising to be something else!
Since the late 1970s and Cyclone Tracy’s velocity and pounding on Darwin, buildings in Australia have been built to sustain the stress of cyclonic conditions. While wind loading standards for new builds continue to be amended as weather conditions get worse from climate change, there are plenty of homes in Alfred’s path that were built before these standards were introduced.
Local and state governments were attentive with assisting communities with information and preparation tips. Generators were supplied to some island communities. Sandbagging stations were established across vulnerable areas in SE Queensland and northern NSW, with high demand leading to the opening of additional sites. Supermarkets couldn’t keep up with the demand for staples. Panic buyers depleted shelves of toilet paper.
While TC Alfred was promising to be something else, the most hectic day — Sunday 9 March — was wild with wind and rain but, as they say, we dodged a bullet: Alfred had morphed into a tropical low.
The whole-island power outage tested the resolve of us all, especially those who experienced seven days without electricity. Government grants have been offered to impacted communities as financial assistance to cover food spoilage, plus the impact of being without power for five or more days. Means-tested grants have also been offered to households without home and contents insurance to help out with items that were damaged from the weather or power surges.
The impacts for Coochiemudlo Island
No water transport to and from the island: Amity Trader suspended operation of the ferry and barge for obvious safety reasons on Wednesday 5 March. The Brisbane Harbour master issued a Red Alert due to extreme weather conditions.
On the afternoon of Sunday 9 March, Amity Trader got the green light to run the ferry for a few hours. The barge and ferry were back in operation on Monday 10 March during daytime hours, with full service in place the following day.
Electricity blackout: At around midday on Thursday 6 March the power went down, across the whole island. On Monday 9 March, Energex were able to start fixing the major outage with some streets getting power back, and the huge task of getting the whole island back on the grid was completed on Thursday 12 March. That means that a significant number of island residents were without power for a whole week. Some households had generators or inverters to keep their fridges and freezers ticking over just enough, although most households lost food supplies that needed refrigeration. With the humidity meant fresh fruit and vegetables deteriorated quickly. Thank heavens for tin beans and rice, and a gas cooker to flare up. And having a car to charge your phone.
No internet or mobile coverage: We lost mobile coverage when the cell on the island used up its battery backup 4–6 hours after the power outage. Consequently there was no internet coverage either. However, some residents were able to pick up a signal from Victoria Point, at the barge ramp area, although this signal was intermittent at times. Telstra also offered free wifi from the phone box outside the Curlew Cafe but not everyone could access this.
Rainfall, flooding, sandbags: Unlike the mainland, Coochiemudlo is lucky not to significant flooding issues. Our rainfall over the Alfred weather event wasn’t as high as other mainland areas and reported to about 300mm. However the water course on the south of the island can swell and creates flooding hazards for nearby residences. Low lying areas on the east of the island are affected from water run off and seepage. There are numerous residences that require sandbags to prevent water inundation and flooding of premises.
Erosion: Coochiemudlo’s eastern shoreline was affected by significant erosion, once again, from the storm surges that resulted from the wild weather.
Heartfelt thanks go to services like Energex, Amity Trader, local and state governments, the contractors clearing the piles of fallen branches and foliage, and anyone who helped get the community back on track as soon as practically possible.
Mitigation tips for wild-weather events
Things to acquire or consider
Generators, inverters, or portable power packs as backup solutions for power blackouts. If you have a car on the island, top it up with fuel and make sure you have a working USB adaptor and cable to charge things like phones and torches. Battery-run radios work well — if you have one, stock up on the battery type it uses. Communication is king, and local ABC radio is good with keeping us updated.
Full gas bottles, camping cookers or barbeques, if your kitchen is set up with electric ovens and hotplates.
Home/property maintance for damage mitigation — clean out gutters, clear storm-water drains to eliminate potential water inundation. If you have a storm-water run-off problem, consider whether creating a swale would assist steering water away from your home or property. Trees around the home can potentially drop branches on your roof. It makes sense to regularly assess and attend to potential tree or branch falls onto power lines or your roof — not that any arborist would recommend cutting down trees willy nilly. If you do have a wooded area close to your house with saplings taking hold close to your roofline, you might consider whether to keep them pruned or pull them out before they get too big. Stow away any items that might fly about your yard as the wind ramps up.
Sandbags if the location of your home is prone to flooding or run off. Consider creating a swale to divert storm-water run off away from your property.
Tall tree assessments and maintenance because the island’s blackouts were caused by falling or snapping trees. We all could to be attentive with identifying trees on the island that need pruning to elimate branch falls, or snapping, onto electricity wires. More assessments and attention from Energex with maintaining trees in the streets near power lines would be good. So contact Energex or our state member if you identify any obvious hazards.
Acquire a food supply that doesn’t go off in a blackout — tinned and bottled food, dried food like rice, lentils, fruit, if kept sealed and dried.
Boaties need to check their vessel’s mooring lines — before the weather event hits!
Last but not least, communications — check on your neighbours to ask if they need any assistance; keep up-to-date with weather-related information from your ABC local radio, local and state governments.
References:
ABC News: Perparing for Tropical Cyclone Alfred? (4 March 2025)
Interesting link:
‘Eye of the Storm’ — a report delivered by the Climate Council on the science behind why storms like Alfred are becoming more intense (March 2025).
