SEQ greeted this cyclone just like our northern cousins – with grit and humour

• Follow our live coverage for Cyclone Alfred here.

“We are Queenslanders; we’re the people that they breed tough north of the border. We’re the ones that they knock down and we get up again.”

That rallying cry echoed throughout the country in 2011, when then-premier Anna Bligh was confronted with catastrophic flooding that saw Brisbane go under water for the first time since 1974.

Wynnum Road was blocked by a fallen tree at Norman Park.Credit: Albert Perez/Getty Images

Fourteen years on, Bligh’s words still rung true as Queenslanders stood firm in the face of Cyclone Alfred – the first to cross the south-east coast in more than 50 years.

The threat of Alfred was met with calmness and good humour – the “blow at Cyclone Alfred to push it back” group on Facebook amassed more than 116,000 people in less than a week as the storm approached.

There was no real panic – though there were empty supermarket shelves – and there was no dread. People went home and hunkered down without fuss, leaving the streets empty, as they were a few years earlier at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (a slightly triggering sight, to be sure).

The calm before the storm had a COVID feel about it.Credit: Albert Perez/Getty Images

This past week, there was just a clear-eyed effort to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

And, in the end, it could have been so much worse. What, for a while, seemed likely to be a direct hit by a category 2 storm on heavily populated areas of Brisbane, Australia’s third-largest city, ended up being a category 1 over Moreton Island.

By the time it entered Moreton Bay, Alfred was no more – the storm system turned right and headed up the coast as a low-pressure system, after passing over Moreton Island about 1am on Saturday.

For many residents, fears of destructive winds did not eventuate; it was more like a strong breeze and a bit of rain. As Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said on Saturday morning, the capital had “dodged a bullet”.

Not all were so lucky, of course. Despite being further away from the eye of the storm, the Gold Coast copped a lot of damage, including a roof lost at a unit block in Labrador. Trees went down across the south-east, landing on homes, cars and powerlines – contributing to more than a quarter of a million homes and businesses being left without power.

But Alfred’s destructive winds were not as widespread as had been feared, and property damage was limited – for now, at least.

South-east Queenslanders know too well that destructive winds are just one threat from such storms. With heavy rain expected over the next few days, the risk of dangerous flooding is real and familiar.

In the end, Premier David Crisafulli, just a little more than four months into the job, had no need to give a Bligh-style speech to lift broken Queensland spirits. In 2011, thousands were forced out of their homes and 35 lives were lost.

There would be no repeat in March 2025.

Thankfully, despite fears earlier in the week, it appeared on Saturday that while Alfred certainly packed a punch, it was nowhere near as devastating as 2011 – or 2022, for that matter, when an “atmospheric river” dumped up to 1100 millimetres on parts of Brisbane over three days.

Having grown up in Townsville, Crisafulli is no stranger to cyclones.

North Queensland is well-versed in cyclone preparation and recovery – it would be rare for a year to pass without at least one cyclone crossing the coast somewhere up north.

That perhaps guided his very matter-of-fact and calm communication style as Alfred approached through the week. For northerners like Crisafulli, it’s just another day in paradise.

Still, the premier did have to acknowledge that for most people watching Alfred approach the coast, it was a novel experience.

“I want to thank the people in a largely populated area, the vast majority of whom have never been through a cyclone before,” Crisafulli said on Saturday.

“And I can imagine it would have been pretty daunting last night – many with no power, [plus] wind and rain – and yet, they did exactly what was needed.”

Despite the dodged bullet, there was no time for complacency in the south-east.

“There remains a real risk of flooding in the days ahead, but this isn’t anything that this part of the state hasn’t dealt with before,” Crisafulli said.

“It’s a challenge that Queensland has arisen to time and time again, and it’s a challenge that they’ll rise to yet again this time.”

The effects of Alfred were widespread but, so far at least, not catastrophic (touch wood). While there’s no cause for celebration, many south-east Queenslanders could not be begrudged a small sigh of relief.

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