North Queensland prepares for 'spooky' cyclone

BRISBANE - A cyclone as powerful as the storm that devastated Darwin 30 years ago was today heading toward the Queensland coast, with weather forecasters unable to accurately predict where it will strike.

Cyclone Ingrid is rated a powerful category five and has a compact centre with winds gusting up to 290kph - drawing comparisons with Cyclone Tracy, which hit Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974.

The Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Brisbane said today the cyclone was about 290km northeast of Cooktown and moving west at 8 kph.

Warning centre supervising meteorologist Phil Alford said the cyclone had a very destructive core.

"Where Tracy was a category four, this is a category five," he said.

"It is a deeper cyclone but with a very concentrated sort of vortex."

Warnings for the far north Queensland coast between Port Douglas and Cairns are being issued every three hours.

Mr Alford said computer models had been unable to accurately predict where the cyclone is likely to cross the coast.

"Because of that that we've got a fairly large warning zone from Lockhart River to Port Douglas," Mr Alford said.

"But one thing is for sure. All models say it's going to cross the coast - none of them are saying it's going to turn around and head off towards New Zealand or something."

Mr Alford said it was possible the cyclone could turn more westerly or even south-westerly and pick up speed by tomorrow, when an upper level trough that is impeding it moves away.

Terry Dukes, the reporting officer and weather observer at Cooktown Airport, said weather conditions today were fairly normal, but people were preparing for the worst.

"This one's a bit spooky," Mr Dukes said.

"The cloud hasn't moved for the last two or three hours as far as coming towards us so it tells me that whatever it's doing it's possibly going a little bit to the northwest.

"If it keeps going that way we are happy," Mr Dukes said.

Federal Liberal MP Warren Entsch, whose far north Queensland electorate of Leichhardt is in the path of the storm, has warned locals not to be complacent.

- AAP