Residents in Western Australia's north are warned a tropical cyclone is forecast to bring heavy rainfall and strong wind gusts tonight as the weather system gains intensity to a category 4 later in the week.

The Bureau of Meteorology said the tropical low is moving south off the Kimberley coastline and is at risk of forming a cyclone tonight.

Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the full impacts of the tropical cyclone will be felt tonight or in the early hours of tomorrow.

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The tropical low is driving wind gusts of up to 85km/h while it is 620km north-east of Broome.

It is developing more slowly, the bureau said, but there is still a high risk it will intensify over coming days.

When it does develop, it will be named cyclone Ilsa.

"The tropical low continues to develop at a slow rate but may still become a cyclone tonight," the bureau said.

"It is then expected to intensify further over the next two days as it moves along a general west-south-west track, parallel to the Kimberley coast."

Narramore said the tropical cyclone will track parallel to the coast on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But the weather system is forecast to escalate on Thursday as the low turns south to the Pilbara coast and crosses to Port Hedland and Broome where it could become a category 4 system.

"A category 4 system, we're talking winds in excess of 200km/h and 250km/h in the core," he said.

"It will cause very heavy rainfall which is expected to cause riverine and flash flooding.

"Very dangerous conditions forming up there on Thursday night through to Friday morning."

The bureau's Todd Smith said there will be upwards of 200mm of rain a day as the cyclone tracks inland through the DeGrey River catchment.

"We expect to see strong river rises, we have a flood watch current for those parts," he said.

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Wind gusts up to 90km/h and heavy rainfall may develop between Cape Leveque and north of Broome on Wednesday.

Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall are expected to pass over the northern Kimberley region today and tomorrow.

There are also expected to be abnormally high tides on the Kimberley coast between Kalumburu and Kuri Bay today and tomorrow.

"In some locations, the tide may be close to the highest astronomical tide of the year," the bureau said.

Communities along the west Kimberley coast should start to prepare for extreme weather conditions, the bureau added.

Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said the communities between Broome and Port Hedland need to be enacting their emergency plans now.

"Clean up around home, have your emergency kit, and keep up to date with warnings," he said.

"Make sure you're prepared, there is no excuse for not being prepared."

Klemm said it has been 10 years since a cyclone greater than category 3 hit the north of Western Australia.

"It has been 10 years since we have had a cyclone this large, there are many people who have not experienced a category 4," he said.

Klemm also urged any holidaygoers or people travelling in caravans between Port Hedland and Broome to leave immediately and head south.

"If you're in a caravan in that area, now is the time to be changing your travel plans," he said.

The highways in the area are expected to be closed for more than 48 hours as the cyclone tracks inland.

Emergency services are working with remote Aboriginal communities to ensure all the resources are available before the cyclone makes landfall.

Residents in the disaster-stricken Fitzroy Valley are expected to avoid impact from the cyclone.

Residents are urged to keep up with weather warnings on the bureau's website.

It will be the third cyclone to hit Australia this year after Cyclone Ellie caused chaos in Western Australia's Kimberley region with intense flooding and destruction and Cyclone Gabrielle sweeping across Queensland's north.

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A family has helped rescue a pair of men who almost drowned after a boating incident on the NSW South Coast.

The Welch family came to the rescue after the pair's boat overturned off Point Perpendicular at Jervis Bay on Saturday.

It was an intense situation that could have turned out a lot worse, according to Melissa Welch.

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"It's terrifying actually, my kids were witnessing everything, it was horrible," she said.

"I thought they were going to die."

Melissa and her husband Daniel and three children Jade, Locky, and Ashley were on board their boat called the Dream Catcher when they came across the unfolding incident.

The men were pinned underwater inside their boat for about 30 seconds before a life jacket was thrown.

"I saw the second guy, he couldn't swim on his back and he was trying to keep his head above the surface," Locky said.

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"He swallowed a lot of water, he was in a bad way." 

The Welch family pulled one of the men, a spearfisher, onboard.

"He came on the boat and it didn't look like he was breathing very well," Melissa said.

"Then he started throwing up water, he had ingested quite a lot of water."

The family called an ambulance and headed to Honeymoon Bay, where they were met by rescue boats.

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The tree has fallen across both lanes, causing delays for motorists.

Stars just hours from the start line of an epic cross-country triathlon.

The Easter long weekend rush home has begun, with major traffic headaches across multiple states.

In NSW and Queensland, traffic is heavy as holidaymakers return home ready to go back to work after the public holiday.

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Transport bosses are warning the major route back into Sydney from the north, the M1, is being hit with "significant delays" due to holiday traffic, as well as earlier crashes and a breakdown.

One of three southbound lanes of the motorway was closed just past the Pacific Highway overpass earlier today.

While all lanes have reopened, southbound traffic is heavy back across the Hawkesbury River Bridge.

Live Traffic is also warning of heavy traffic on the Pacific Highway southbound at Tomago in the Hunter region, and the New England Highway from Hexham to Tarro near Newcastle.

The Great Western Highway eastbound from Little Hartley to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains is also busy, as is the Hume Motorway northbound from Pheasants Nest to Menangle Park in Macarthur near Sydney.

On the NSW South Coast, northbound traffic is easing on the Princes Highway through Ulladulla, Milton, Wandandian and Nowra.

Motorists are advised to drive to the conditions, allow plenty of time and visit Live traffic for updates.

Queensland

In Queensland, the Sunshine Motorway on the Sunshine Coast is already congested, Queensland Roads said.

Warnings are also in place for heavy traffic from the Sunshine Coast down to Brisbane on the Bruce Highway.

Delays are also expected on the Pacific Motorway around the Gold Coast, especially between Burleigh Heads and Currumbin Waters as well as Palm Beach and Reedy Creek.

Check Queensland Traffic for the latest updates.

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Armed police have swooped on a property near where shots were fired.

Houses have lost roofs and trees have been ripped down after a tornado tore through the Tasman region on New Zealand's South Island.

Fire and Emergency NZ responded to calls for assistance following a tornado at 1.20pm on Monday.

A statement issued at 2.37pm local time said approximately 12 houses in the Moutere area had their roofs lifted or had lost their roof entirely.

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"Additionally, a tree fell onto a car with a person inside in Māpua, but the person was able to get out of the car without requiring assistance and reported only minor abrasions.

"There have also been a report of a tree falling onto power lines, as well as a tree falling across a driveway."

MetService issued a heavy rain warning and severe thunderstorm watch for the area at 12.47pm.

Heavy rain was expected to last until 6pm while the thunderstorm watch was in place until 3.30pm.

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MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan said without photo evidence the storm could not be declared as a tornado, but there was a possibility.

There was a risk of large hail, heavy downpours and damaging winds until midday on Tuesday.

"There's a line of vigorous thunderstorms that's fast moving west to east across Nelson, Tasman and then on to Marlborough.

"The worst of it is definitely happening right now with these particularly vigorous thunderstorms that have just moved across, but there is still a risk of more heavy showers and thunderstorms around the rest of the day going into midday tomorrow.

"What we've seen is there's a risk of these strong wind gusts and fast-moving thunderstorms of 80 to 100km/h and then an outside risk of small tornados.

"It could be that there was some tornadic activity and if there's footage of a funnel cloud then that's sure evidence, but these damaging wind gusts can just occur from these really vigorous fast-moving thunderstorm cells as well."

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Fire and Emergency shift manager Blair Walklin said crews were busy responding to weather-related call-outs across Nelson and Tasman.

"We had what's been described as a twister and heavy rain go through the Nelson and Tasman area, and we've received multiple calls to some roofs lifting on properties."

A MetService post on Twitter said there were three main lines of thunderstorms all moving east.

One was crossing Nelson city, moving towards Marlborough, another was between the North and South islands, heading to Kāpiti Coast, and the other was east of Taranaki.

Network Tasman was experiencing outages across Upper and Lower Moutere, Richmond, Māpua, Takaka, Rīwaka and surrounding areas.

The largest faults had been in Golden Bay and Mōtueka, but power had since been restored, operations manager Robert Derks said.

"It was quite a violent wee storm, it passed through quite quickly with lots of lightning and tonnes of rain."

Derks said trees had fallen down over lines and other faults had risen during the storm, but staff were working to restore power as soon as possible.

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"We're narrowing in on the areas and I will put a post up once we know a bit more, but at the moment we're still just dealing with working with what we know."

Tasman Mayor Tim King had been in contact with emergency responders who told him about the tornado that quickly tore through the region.

"It's been an interesting morning, thunderstorm, heavy rain and strong winds," King said.

"There was a tornado through part of Tasman out towards Māpua and Mōtueka.

"Fire and Emergency NZ are managing it, so they're running all the comms and communications. "

King urged people to keep themselves safe, stay home and only drive if necessary.

"Any time there's wild weather just be careful driving, don't really go out and have a nosy."

A spokesperson for Tasman Civil Defence said staff were ready to assist the community with welfare support if necessary.

This article was originally published on Stuff and has been reproduced with permission.

MetService says Nelson is under a severe thunderstorm watch.

Liquidators appointed to manage the collapse of failed construction giant Porter Davis have shut down a bid submitted by a businessman.

Amit Miglani had said he would aim to complete all 1700 unfinished homes if his 11-hour deal was accepted by Grant Thornton, the appointed liquidators.

In another twist, Grant Thornton said it doesn't believe Miglani's offer was credible.

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The country's 12th largest home builder suddenly halted work on 1700 homes in Victoria and Queensland on March 31 after it collapsed into an estimated $20 million funding hole.

Hundreds of other customers are deeply concerned they have lost their entire deposits after signing contracts for homes yet to get underway.

Grant Thornton said the offer from Miglani, which was backed by a conglomerate of investors and made by his company MIG and Sons, did not prove to be genuine.

"While we have no reason to doubt Miglani's intention, we do not believe this is a credible offer to acquire the Porter Davis Group," a Grant Thornton spokesperson said.

"Miglani has not undertaken any due diligence and is unable to complete a transaction in an expedited timeframe which is a key requirement of the liquidators."

Miglani told 3AW earlier today that his offer would entail "buying the whole (Porter Davis) business, keeping all the jobs, keeping all the subcontractors".

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He said the goal would be to finish all unbuilt homes, including those who had signed contracts and were waiting for work to start.

Miglani claimed to have been in discussions with other building companies who could help step up to finish work, but he also indicated that management at Porter Davis should be kept on.

"Keeping them alive, that's probably the best bet at the moment," he said.

In 2021, Miglani was sentenced to a community corrections order for taking nearly $100,000 out of his real estate agency's trust account and spending it on luxury cars and private school fees.

Magistrate Tara Hartnett described Miglani's offending at the time as "serious" and indicated his guilty plea had likely spared him time behind bars.

Miglani said his motivation to act now on the Porter Davis deal was because the company was "one of the biggest assets" in the country and "I really feel that it should be saved".

"The community is the one who's going to suffer at the end of the day," he said.

"There'll be a lot of losses, there'll be a lot of life savings gone."

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https://omny.fm/shows/3aw-breakfast-with-ross-and-john/rescue-bid-eleventh-hour-porter-davis-offer-made/embed

Earlier this month, 9News reported that disgruntled out-of-pocket tradies were being accused of vandalising construction sites after the collapse.

Devastated customers were padlocking fences and installing security cameras to ensure their new homes weren't targeted.

A spokesperson for liquidator Grant Thornton said an "extremely challenging environment" had directly contributed to Porter Davis' collapse.

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They also blamed "rising input costs, supply chain delays, labour shortages, and a drop in demand for new homes in 2023" for impacting liquidity.

At the time of collapse, Porter Davis had around 470 employees and many subcontractors on its sites.

The construction sector hit severe headwinds during the pandemic, and at least 20 building companies folded in 2022.

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‘Armful’ of watches taken, but jewellery ignored after stolen ute used to smash grille.