Damaging conditions are due to ease after days of wild weather but the risk remains of major thunderstorms in Australia’s eastern states.
Residents in Queensland’s Wide Bay and surrounding land areas have been put on alert for a risk of severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and large hail on Saturday.
Storms and showers are set to linger around the rest of Australia’s east coast over the weekend.
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Western NSW, central Victoria and South Australia have been battered by damaging wind, heavy rain and large hailstones over the past few days.
The storms prompted severe weather warnings, caused power outages and hundreds of calls to state emergency services.
Late on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology warned severe thunderstorms with damaging wind gusts would continue into the evening in parts of eastern NSW.
Residents were told to move cars under cover, secure loose items around their homes and stay clear of creeks and storm drains.
Extensive damage to transmission towers between western NSW’s Buronga and Broken Hill left more than 1600 powerless at one point, with some temporarily connected via backup generators.
Intense rainfall caused flash flooding in parts of Victoria on Friday afternoon, with some 44mm of rain falling in 30 minutes at Geelong Racecourse.
Crowds heading to the MotoGP at Phillip Island, southeast of Melbourne, were told to reconsider travel due to wild conditions.
Showers would develop from Eastern Queensland to the Kimberley on Saturday afternoon before conditions settled, bureau senior meteorologist Sarah Scully said.
Calmer, sunny conditions are due to set in by Sunday afternoon.