A man has disappeared in floodwater, people were ordered to evacuate homes as part of the Australian east coast was lashed by wind and rain ahead of its first tropical cyclone in 51 years.

Hundreds of thousands of people are under a blackout in Queensland, while flood warnings remain in place across New South Wales, after ex-Cyclone Alfred left a trail of destruction along Australia’s east coast.

Millions of residents along Australia’s eastern coast are bracing for the arrival of a very slow-moving storm, the most southerly tropical cyclone to threaten the region in more than 50 years.