Murray Olds: Australian correspondent on the mass preparations ahead of Cyclone Alfred

Supermarket shelves in Queensland are being stripped as locals prepare for Cyclone Alfred.

The category two storm is brewing off Australia's coast, causing heavy surf and high tides. 

It's expected to hit at the end of the week, bringing winds up to 120 kilometres an hour.

Australian correspondent Murray Olds says heavy rain, erosion and flash flooding are expected to batter the Sunshine Coast by Friday.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murray Olds is our Australia correspondent, Murray cyclone Alfred heading
towards Australia. Are people taking this seriously?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Are Ryan?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Yeah? Good afternoon. Is the first tropical cyclone to hit
southeast Queensland in a generation since nineteen ninety prior of
that nineteen seventy four. And some very wild weathers on
the way. One hundred and twenty hundred and thirty k
and our winds up to half a meter of rain
in some parts, waves up to nine to ten meters high,
belting into the coast. Well, that's going to cause a
lot of flash flooding erosion as well from the mid

(00:29):
North Coast way up past the Sunshine Coast in Queensland,
the mid North coast of New South Wales. Now that's
it's well over one thousand kilometers, so it's a very
very big storm. Locals have been belted, as you know
in recent years, a very very serious string of bad
weather events. Shops are busy, some shelves are empty, people
being urged to buy just what you need for say

(00:51):
seventy two hours. You've got State Emergency Service volunteers. They
are on standby up and down the coast. You've got
special flood rescue teams and play and locals are being
urged to download the latest apps. That's the emerge now
is the most effective way to stay in touch with
all the warnings that are going to be flooding out
as soon as this big bad boy hits.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Meanwhile, you've got your Defense minister giving an update on
when the shipment of tanks is going to be sent
to Ukraine. Sounds like they could use them now.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
No kidding, it's right with Trump slamming the brakes on
any more military supplies from the United States. But I'm
not sure that Ukraine's really going to I'm not sure
what they're going to say about forty nine Abrams tanks
near the end of their operational lives. Ukraine wants them,
of course, and before the northern summer they can get
them up to speed and the people trained up to

(01:42):
run them and get them on the front line by
big year now, Miles Richard Marles, the Defense Minister did
not give a timeline. He just said, oh, look, you
know it's going to be soon. Well that's not good
enough for Key. You visited an Albanezi. The Prime Minister
again has restated in support for ves suggested he's open
to sending peacekeepers. This is interesting if requested by Britain.

(02:06):
Australia is provided to this point one and a half
billion dollars in aid to Ukraine. And these these Abram tanks,
forty nine of them, well, they could be on their
way pretty soon. That's what Ukraine is hoping for.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
These tariffs that Trump's announced today had a bit of
a hit on your stock market.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
No kidding. Yeah, the Australian market followed Wall Street down,
the ASX down that one percent is out of the opening,
lost four point two percent in February, and that's the
worst month we fall in more than two years. Veiggus
falls and miners over here worried that China won't need
as much high all of American tariffs start belting Beijing.
Iron all down two point two percent out of night.

(02:46):
Also down energy tech stocks, the big banks as well.
Investors also over here Ryan waiting for the minutes of
the Reserve Banks board meeting last week. They decided that
that board meeting to cut official interest rates by a
quarter of one And what these boffins, these pointy heads
far above my plate, grave mate, They are looking for
clues in the notes about another rate cut, and also

(03:08):
waiting as well on some pretty important data out later
this week the latest Carrot account and retail sales figures.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Nice on, Murray, thank you for that and we'll look
forward to getting those updates. That's Murray Old's, our Australia
correspondent with us.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
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