Like many laid-back locals, Luke Pote doesn’t usually stay up to date with weather advice at his remote community.
But that looks set to change as one of the biggest cyclones in recent memory barrels toward Queensland’s far north.
Tropical Cyclone Narelle could impact the coast as a dangerous category five system early on Friday, bringing winds up to more than 250km/h.
Sign up to The Nightly’s newsletters.
Get the first look at the digital newspaper, curated daily stories and breaking headlines delivered to your inbox.
By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.
Damaging gusts of up to 155km/h are expected to start bombarding the far north from Thursday.
Cooktown, north of Cairns, appears to be in the monster system’s sights after it makes landfall further north at Coen.
For the time being though, it is business as usual for Mr Pote who owns Cooktown Orchid Travellers Park, one of the town’s only grocery stores.
“We’ve got heaps of beer, food and fuel – we’re good to go,” Mr Pote told AAP on Wednesday.
“We don’t worry about it until it’s right on our doorstop. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway.
“The generators are ready to go – we plan for the wet season every year. We stock up on potatoes and pumpkins.”
Mr Pote was shocked to discover Narelle was expected to reach category five.
“Really? Wow. I try not to watch the weather, but oh well. She’ll be right,” he said.
“Honestly, it hasn’t been that bad – there’s not too much panic buying yet, I reckon there might be a bit of a rush though if we get hit by a five.
“But there’s not much you can do but wait it out and get ready for the clean-up.”
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said the system might be the biggest many people had seen in living memory.
“We’re asking people to prepare for waves, for wind, for rainfall, for flooding but communities will get through it if they do preparations,” Mr Crisafulli said.
After crossing Cape York the storm was then expected to impact the Northern Territory’s Top End before moving into Western Australia’s Kimberley coast.
When it reaches the NT, it is likely to be downgraded to a category three storm.
Narelle will be the first category five storm to hit Queensland since Cyclone Marcia devastated central parts of the state in 2015.
