More wild weather is on the way for parts of Queensland and northern New South Wales, with heavy rain, damaging winds and hazardous surf bringing the risk of coastal erosion.
It comes as a cold snap grips south-east Australia, driving temperatures down and bringing with it widespread frost.
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted damaging wind, huge swells and heavy rain along the stretch of the southern Queensland coast from Wednesday and northern NSW from Friday.
The forecast came as many areas in and around Sydney were still recovering from catastrophic flooding, some for the second and third time this year.
While most of the rain was expected offshore, some localised creek and river level rises were possible.
“This system is expected to bring large seas along with the risk of damaging winds around exposed coastal fringes of south-eastern Queensland,” the BoM senior meteorologist, Jonathan How, said on Wednesday.
Strong south-easterly winds were expected to develop along the Queensland coast south of Mackay from Wednesday and extend into NSW on Thursday.
“There is a risk of damaging wind gusts of more than 90km/h on Friday and early Saturday around the exposed coastal fringes of firstly southern Queensland, then northern NSW,” How said.
A hazardous swell was expected to develop along the southern Queensland and northern NSW coast on Friday and continue over the weekend.
“The swell may lead to coastal erosion in vulnerable areas along the southern Queensland and northern NSW coasts,” How said.
The high-pressure system hovering over NSW continued a run of cold days, with minimum temperatures tipped to remain between 10C and 13C over the next week.
On Wednesday afternoon, Melbourne was sitting at around 11C, up to 3C below the monthly average for July, with morning frost forecast for the rest of the week.
The BoM was forecasting a minimum of only 1C for Melbourne on Thursday, with a maximum of 15C expected, making it one of the coldest days of the year. Tullamarine, Scoresby and Watsonia were forecast to drop to –1C, while Yarra Glen was expected to see a frosty minimum of –3C.
Friday was forecast to see a minimum of 5C, before climbing to a maximum of 17C.
The cold comes as a result of a front moving across the south-east that brought freezing temperatures, rain, hail and snow over the weekend.
Tasmania is also facing similarly low temperatures, with Hobart forecast to face minimums below 2C on Thursday and Friday. Launceston was forecast to see –2C on Thursday, with frost and light rainfall forecast.
Statewide frost was expected to persist until Friday, with Tasmanian police urging drivers to navigate frozen roads carefully, to leave plenty of space between cars, and to ensure tyres are in good condition.
The BoM has issued warnings for icy roads in parts of the North West Coast, Central North, North East, Western, Central Plateau, Midlands, East Coast, Upper Derwent Valley and South East forecast districts.
