Cyclone Alfred is bearing down on Queensland and NSW and expected to make landfall today or Friday. Many thousands of residents, with help from the government, are preparing and securing their properties. Evacuation centres are open while businesses and schools across the region are closed.

Residents are stacking sandbags to protect low-lying properties ahead of a tropical cyclone that is forecast to become the first in 51 years to hit the Australian east coast near Brisbane, the nation’