A cyclone warning is in place for every town and city between Cairns and St Lawrence as the huge tropical system approaches the coast.
An emergency storm tide alert has been issued for Townsville and the council will open three evacuation centres on Thursday morning.
The system is forecast to form into a cyclone before it makes landfall on Friday morning.
The Bureau of Meteorology is warning people to batten down as the storm will likely bring heavy rain and winds up to 120-kilometres-per-hour.
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