Queensland has closed 37 schools and five childhood centres and warned parents to collect their kids, with some of them urged to go straight an evacuation centre as catastrophic conditions fan more than 130 wildfires around the state.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned families not to go out in the catastrophic conditions, and to keep together and prepare to leave if needed.
"This is the first time we have had this category in Queensland," she told reporters.
"Unprecedented, uncharted, but we have a plan and we are going to follow that plan. That is why we have taken the urgent action of closing schools."
Minutes after the press conference, some 8000 people were ordered to evacuate as fire races toward Gracemere just outside Rockhampton.
Gracemere State School was one of the 37 closed.
Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart warned people in the area not to go home but not to panic.
"If you are picking up the kids, don't go home, go to the Showgrounds at Rockhampton," Mr Stewart said.
"Please don't panic. I urge people to think about their safety, the safety of their loved ones, the safety of their neighbours. Police will be out there trying to door-knock as quickly as we can to help with this evacuation.
"Obviously we won't get to all of those small farmlets that round that western side of Gracemere. We would ask you - if your family lives there, give them a call now. Tell them to get out. Tell them to get to safety."
Earlier, Brian Smith, Regional Manager for the Rural Fire Services Central Region, said experts had predicted catastrophic conditions would unfold making the situation unpredictable and potentially deadly.
"This is something we don't want to overstate, but they're comparing this to the conditions in the Waroona fires in Western Australia, which completely wiped out a town a few years ago, and also to the recent California fires," he told AAP.
Share
