Already strained Aussie households must brace for steadily rising fresh meat and vegetable prices this year, an analyst has warned.

The cost of beef, lamb, chicken and pork have all jumped from this time last year, according to latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.

Coffee lovers have also seen sharp rises to their favourite drink, while alcohol prices are on their way up too, underlining why the cost of living is proving such a crunch battleground on the federal election campaign trail.

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Beef prices have increased 9 per cent from 2021 levels, largely because of strong demand from China, with lamb lifting almost 7 per cent.

Chicken and pork have so far been least affected, however that could be about to change with global feed grain shortages caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Matt Dalgleish, manager of commodity markets insights at Thomas Elder Markets, warned Aussie chicken and pig farmers are probably on the brink of passing on rising production costs to shoppers and supermarkets.

"I think for the next year there's going to be price pressures for consumers across a whole range of products," Dalgleish told 9news.com.au.

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Australia's COVID-19 restrictions had seriously curtailed backpacker labour on livestock and horticultural farms, he said, and that issue is now manifesting in fresh food prices.

"There has been quite a few stories getting around about farmers with the inability to harvest at the right time who are forced to leave product to rot in the ground, or they're turning it back into the ground because they've just not got access to the labour force.

"That lack of supply of product has been flowing through into higher prices at the supermarket for a whole range of vegetables."

The cost of vegetables and coffee are up 8 per cent, compared to 2021, with milk closing in on 4 per cent.

Alcohol prices had lifted by about 15 per cent in the past five years, Dalgleish said, after being relatively stable through the first half of the last decade.

Meat and seafood had increased by more than a third from levels seen in 2013.

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Combined with recent and anticipated interest rate rises, Dalgleish said Aussie household budgets would inevitably come under pressure this year.

Last month inflation soared to a 21-year high, rising 5.1 per cent annually.

The jump in inflation surprised many analysts, who had expected an increase to no more than match the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, when annual CPI hit 5 per cent.

House prices, mortgage repayments, and the cost of food, schooling and fuel have been front of centre of federal election debates.

Police are appealing for information after a man was allegedly kidnapped and assaulted in regional Victoria last week.

Police say a man was picked up by a woman driving a blue Holden Commodore sedan from a Hamilton address about 11.30pm on Friday.

Once inside the vehicle, police believe the man was allegedly assaulted by a man hiding inside the car.

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The offenders then drove to a petrol station on Cox Street in Hamilton where the victim managed to escape and raise the alarm.

The 38-year-old Hamilton man was taken to hospital with facial injuries.

The investigation remains ongoing, and investigators are keen to speak to any witnesses.

Victoria's Phillip Island beach has hosted the highest number of little penguins in 54 years in what one scientist called a "penguin party".

Some 5219 little penguins swum into shore at Phillip Island and waddled up the beach to their burrows in just one hour on Tuesday, May 3, marking the highest number recorded there since 1968.

The record-breaking event came as a surprise, with the largest numbers of penguin crossings usually occurring during the peak of breeding season in November and December.

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"We couldn't believe our eyes when more than 5000 penguins came out of the water in less than an hour," Phillip Island Nature Parks' scientist Paula Wasiak said.

"It's been a penguin party night after night, which is unusual for this time of year, let alone in record numbers like we are seeing now."

Between 3000 and 5000 penguins came in every other night last week, with as many as 4500 counted on one week the night prior.

The average number of penguins who burrowed at the beach each night last year ranged from around 700 in July to 2300 in November.

Wasiak said it seemed that an abundance of food close to shore was allowing the penguins to gear up for the biggest Autumn breeding attempt ever seen.

"While penguins usually breed during spring and summer, older, more experienced birds are known to take advantage of a secondary peak in marine productivity in autumn, which can result in an increase in colony attendance and breeding behaviour."

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She said work to improve the dune structure and restore the habitat following erosion at the beach had also likely contributed to the increase in penguins visiting.

Phillip Island's colony of about 40,000 little penguins is the largest in the world.

Visitors pack stands by the beach to watch the penguins arrive each night, with the parades have been booked out every night during the Easter school holidays.

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As Queensland braces for a record rain event to hit "multiple areas and multiple regions" tonight, Western Australia is also preparing for a deluge.

Weatherzone says a late season tropical cyclone has formed over the Indian Ocean, which will see rain fall over WA later this week.

Cyclone Karim strengthened to a category two system last night.

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Despite it being the cyclone off-season, modelling shows parts of the state could receive 30mm of rain.

"Australia's tropical cyclone season officially ended more than a week ago on April 30," Weatherzone explained.

"However, unusually warm water over the eastern Indian Ocean has helped spawn an out-of-season tropical cyclone.

"Showers will start to increase over the west coast of WA from late Wednesday, before rain becomes heavier and more widespread on Thursday into Friday."

The low pressure system is not expected to make landfall.

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Queensland prepares for deluge

A major wet weather event is also set to hit Queensland.

Most of the rain will fall along more than 700km of the central and northern parts of the coast, from Townsville down to Rockhampton and inland to Longreach and Winton.

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Towns in that area already received a lot of rain over the Anzac Day long weekend and catchments are very full.

Bureau meteorologist Jackson Browne said 100mm could fall on Longreach in outback Queensland.

"That is five times the monthly rainfall in May for Longreach," Browne said, adding that rainfall forecast is "conservative".

"It's very unusual for May.

"The responsible character is a large high-pressure system in the Tasman Sea.

"And that's drawing a huge north-easterly fetch of moisture down from the Solomon Islands."

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Browne said rain will develop over inland regions from tonight, with the system shifting toward the coast later tomorrow.

Up to 400mm of rain could fall on parts of the coast in just 48 hours, with the SES preparing for emergency situations.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said it was likely flood watch warnings would be released throughout the day.

People in the affected areas are urged to stay across the warnings and updates and keep off the roads if possible.

Tomorrow to Thursday is set to be the biggest danger period.

The state's south-east is not set to see as much rain, but a severe wind warning is in place for the region.

The Sunshine Coast is also bracing for a thunderstorm and up to 90mm of rain.

The high-profile murder trial of Chris Dawson has begun in Sydney's Supreme Court, more than 40 years after his wife Lynette disappeared.

Dawson, a former rugby league player turned high school teacher, is accused of killing the mother-of-two, who was last seen on Sydney's Northern Beaches in 1982.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The fate of the 73-year-old now rests in the hands of Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison.

Dawson has always denied having anything to do with the suspicious disappearance, and although Lynette's body has never been found, he was charged with murder in 2018.

"I'm looking forward to justice being served and the truth coming out in the next few weeks," Dawson told 9News on his way from the Sunshine Coast yesterday.

Today the judge was told just over six years before Lynette vanished, Dawson was watching a broadcast of the Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fight in the Philippines with his football teammates.

According to the Crown Prosecutor he asked one of them "if he knew someone who could get rid of his wife".

Craig Everson SC argued the conversation didn't go any further until Dawson began an affair with a young woman in the 1980s.

"He was infatuated with her… he repeatedly asked her to marry him… He was motivated to kill his wife by his desire to have an unfettered relationship," Everson said.

Lynette Dawson has not been seen or heard from for more than 40 years.

Not long after she went missing, it's alleged Dawson told his girlfriend "Lyn was gone and she wouldn't be coming back".

It wasn't reported to police for six weeks and while there have been several sightings in the years that followed, none of them have been confirmed, nor has her body been found.

Dawson is the only person that's ever been charged but today the court heard there could have been others involved in the alleged killing and the dumping of Lynette's remains.

The trial could run for up to six weeks.

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War medals from World War II have been found by a former police officer hidden in an old piece of wooden furniture.

A retired homicide detective found the medals in the furniture, which was bought from a garage sale more than a decade ago in the Doncaster area, in Melbourne's east.

The set was handed into Warrandyte Police Station on May 3.

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Police believe the medals belong to David Bruce Welsford, who was born in August 1924.

The set includes a 1939-45 Star, a Pacific Star, a War Medal and an Australian Service Medal 1939-1945.

It is understood Welsford lived all of his life in the eastern and north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, with his last known address being in Doncaster.

He died in 2001 and his wife, Lorrie Welsford, passed away in 1999.

Police believe they did not have children but said Ms Welsford may have had children from a previous marriage.

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Police continue will continue to track down any of Welsford's family so the medals can be passed onto his loved ones.

Police have issued photos of the medals and urge anyone who knew Welsford or has more information to contact Warrandyte Police Station on (03) 9844 3231.