At least six people including a nine-year-old girl have lost their lives in wild weather hammering ‘s east coast as a frantic search continues for those still missing.
Four of the deaths occurred in Queensland where ferocious storms, heavy rain and powerful winds have been targeting the state’s southeast since Christmas Day.
The nine-year-old girl was swept into a storm drain after jumping a fence on Palara Street at Logan, in Brisbane’s south, about 6.30pm on Boxing Day.
The girl’s family, from Rochedale South, ‘are requesting privacy at this difficult time’.
A body was pulled from waters in Moreton Bay on Tuesday following a boating accident south of Green Island that is feared to have taken the lives of two more.
Eight people were taken to hospital as police divers continue to search between Manly and Green Island for to people who remain missing.
The search, which was suspended just before midnight, will resume at first light.
A car is stuck in floodwaters in Longlands Street, East Brisbane, on Tuesday
An electrical storm is seen at Reedy Creek on the Gold Coast on Monday, December 25
The body of a 40-year-old woman was pulled from the Mary River in Gympie after reports two women had been swept away in floodwaters near the Kidd Bridge.
A 46-year-old woman remains missing with the search to resume on Wednesday.
The Christmas storms had already accounted for one death on Monday when Robyn Carman, 59, was killed when she was hit by a fallen tree on the Gold Coast.
In Victoria, a woman who is yet to be formally identified was found dead at a campground in Buchan in the state’s Gippsland region.
Emergency services were called to the campsite following reports cars were underwater and people were sheltering on a bridge to escape flash flooding.
Buchan copped up to 69.4mm of rain in just half an hour on Tuesday.
A Victorian man has died after being struck in the head by a falling tree branch while camping on a private property in Caringal, in the state’s east.
Emergency services tried to revive him but he died at the scene on Tuesday.
Severe thunderstorms have produced large hailstones (pictured) in northern NSW
Fallen power lines, felled trees smashing cars and homes, and several drivers crashing into poles have kept emergency crews busy since Christmas Day.
Gympie was hit by a severe thunderstorm on Tuesday that uprooted trees as a band of storms rolled through Queensland’s southeast.
Golf ball size hail was spotted at Zillmere in Brisbane’s north while 62mm of rain was recorded in Jindalee, in the city’s southwest, in just one hour.
Queensland Ambulance Service assistant commissioner Andrew Hebbron warned people to avoid travelling on the roads during severe weather.
‘An absolutely tragic set of circumstances and a good reminder for the moment and especially today that if you don’t need to be on the roads today we encourage you not to be,’ he said.
In Jimboomba, south of Brisbane, Betty and David Hall’s ceiling collapsed.
‘It was scary, I was panicking,’ Ms Hall said.
‘We lost power as well.’
It came after wild storms on Christmas Day left thousands of homes without power with more than 120,000 people without electricity as of Tuesday afternoon.
Of those, 82,000 were on the Gold Coast, where 700 power lines were down.
A crane at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast couldn’t withstand the force of the storms
Fallen trees are seen at Reedy Creek on the Gold Coast on Tuesday
Queensland along with parts of ‘s east coast endured a torrid few days as the wild weather settled in across Christmas Eve and Christmas day
‘There’ll be a couple of days of work there to rectify that,’ Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said.
‘We’ve got powerlines down, even at our theme parks, so we’re prioritising that as well.’
The Queensland Ambulance Service said paramedics’ workloads ‘surged significantly’ as storms hit the Gold Coast on Monday night.
‘We saw everything from people being injured in their homes from damage that was incurred by the storms to some less serious electrocutions,’ Mr Hebbron said.
A man in his 70s was hurt when a tree branch fell onto a tent in Helensvale. He was in a stable condition in hospital with pelvic and back injuries.
A collapsed roof put a man in his 90s in hospital with a head injury, where he remained in a stable condition.
The severe storms forced Dreamworld and other Gold Coast theme parks to close on Boxing Day for safety checks.
A major flood warning was issued for the Logan River on Tuesday, with flood waters already spilling over the banks at 8.7m at Beaudesert, at the Scenic Rim region.
Wind gusts of up to 106km whipped through the seaside tourist hotspot late into the evening on Christmas Day, felling trees and sending debris flying through the street.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles said the SES had reported concrete power poles being taken down by the ferocity of the weather.
‘It will take days to get all of them repaired. I spoken to the mayors of Logan and Gold Coast, the situation is in hand through their local disaster management,’ the premier told media on Tuesday.
Deputy Premier Cameron Dick said the fierce storm ‘can only be described as a mini cyclone’, with emergency crews working overtime to restore power.
Properties in Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast suffered damage in wild weather across Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 2023
A tree is ripped from the ground during a storm in Oxenford on the Gold Coast
Power utility company Energex has crews worked overnight to restore power to more than 57,000 customers throughout southeast Queensland
Power utility company Energex has warned that damage from the storms is ‘catastrophic and widespread’ and some customers will be without power for days.
‘This is an extremely dangerous situation,’ the power utility said on Boxing Day.
‘If you need to be outside, watch for fallen powerlines – report any you see ASAP to 000 or 13 19 62, stay well away and warn others.
‘Never, ever assume that a downed powerline is anything other than live and dangerous.’
Meanwhile, in Victoria, scores of homes were also still impacted by power outages in the state’s central and northern regions, including around Sherparton and Echua.
Residents in the state capital shared video online on Tuesday of what they claimed were long streaks of lightning lighting up the sky during a flight over the city.
Play in the Boxing Day cricket Test, where is taking on Pakistan, stopped for several hours from after 2pm when rain started over the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
However, the teams were able to return to the field in the late afternoon.
Further north, residents in regional NSW braced amid renewed threats of flooding, including on the south coast which witnessed ‘intense’ rainfall on Monday.
The BOM recorded more than 89mm of rain falling in just one hour in the Eurobodalla region, an area popular with tourists during summer.
Advice-level flood warnings were also in place on Tuesday for swathes of the state’s south, including around the Snowy Mountains and Tumut regions.
In the NSW Hunter region, hailstones the size of tennis balls pounded the small town of Rutherford, north of Newcastle.
Sunset is seen as a tropical storm passes through Reedy Creek on the Gold Coast on Tuesday
A huge number of trees have been brought down by the fierce winds over the festive season
Hailstones along with damaging winds and heavy rain hit several towns (Rutherford, pictured) across NSW with the wild weather making it’s way to Sydney
Michelle Hadley, posting to social media, showed off a photo of her hands cupping large hailstones with the caption ‘Rutherford’.
Responding to Ms Hadley’s post, Caz Hooper posted a photo of a bucketful of hailstones and said her car had been wrecked by the blast of hail.
‘So much massive hail in Rutherford,’ she said.
‘I imagine the insurance companies will be very busy this week! My car is wrecked!’
Brooke Lewins, meanwhile, said she had seen ‘tennis ball-sized’ hail in the town.
Videos posted to the Maitland Community Noticeboard page show a wild hailstone storm smashing the area, with stones and sharp winds tearing into cars and streets.
Tuesday saw conditions ease across much of the country with BOM cancelling multiple weather warnings in NSW and South .
Sydney was forecast to receive only showers, with the possibility of a storm. Similar forecasts were made for Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra.
In the country’s west, advice-level warnings were still in place for a number of bushfires across the southwest.
In the state’s north, a heatwave warning was still in place.