Cyclone hits Queensland

BRISBANE - Tropical Cyclone Ingrid has crossed the far north Queensland coast in a remote area south of Lockhart River.

Carrying destructive winds of around 230km/h the category 4 cyclone swept inland accompanied by a storm surge of around two metres on top of rising tides that were expected to inundate low lying areas.

The Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane said Ingrid made landfall about 30km southeast of Lockhart River, where 700 residents were evacuated to shelters early today.

Speaking from a command centre at the Lockhart River police station, Lockhart River Council CEO Peter Buckland said residents had taken all the precautions they could.

"Outside trees are bending and branches are coming down ... we are just waiting to see what happens and hoping it doesn't come right over us," Mr Buckland said.

"What we've done during the night is evacuate the people to four identified evacuation centres, one is the bottom floor of the council office, the (police) watch house, the amenities block at the school and the local land and sea centre.

"There's probably about 700 people in Lockhart River we have moved this morning."

After being downgraded to a category three cyclone late yesterday, Ingrid picked up strength overnight and was reclassified to category 4 before it swept onto the coast.

Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre supervising meteorologist Phil Alford, said although Ingrid was expected to weaken after crossing the coast, she was not done yet and was expected to sweep right across Cape York Peninsula and into the Gulf of Carpentaria and strengthen again.

"They will still get some damaging winds in that (Lockhart River) area," Mr Alford said.

He said the cyclone would weaken once it was over land because of the friction effect of the land surface.

"So it will weaken to below category four, possibly back down to category two or category one, but its expected to go right across Cape York and then come out the other side," Mr Alford said.

"The latest warning we've just issued has been extended to cover the entire span of Cape York Peninsula between Mapoon and Cape Keerweer and Weipa is included in that."

Mr Alford said the cyclone would still produce damaging winds on the other side of the cape.

"Then it will head out into the Gulf of Carpentaria where the waters are three or four degrees above average, so it's quite warm out there -- wonderful breeding ground for tropical cyclones."

Mr Alford said after the cyclone intensified again it would continue heading west across the gulf and be close to the coast of the Northern Territory by Saturday.

"Fairly soon it will be the responsibility of the Darwin Tropical Cyclone centre and we can close down until the next one," Mr Alford said.

- AAP