Millions of residents along Australia’s eastern coast are bracing for the arrival of a very slow-moving storm, the strongest tropical cyclone to threaten the region in more than 50 years. Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday as a Category 1 cyclone,

More than four million people across Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast in Queensland - as well as in northern NSW towns including Byron Bay and Lismore - are planning for Cyclone Alfred.

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’s third-most populous city.