A man has been charged after an alleged arson attack on a home north of Brisbane spread to others, destroying them.

The fireerupted just before 2pm yesterday, when a 36-year-old allegedly used an accelerant to set alight a house in Weaber Street in Clontarf, before he fled the house.

The house quickly went up in flames, and it was later destroyed.

READ MORE: Aussie diver on 'pretty full on' operation to free villagers trapped in Laos cave

The fire was so fierce it spread to two neighbouring homes, also destroying them and forcing an evacuation of surrounding streets and sending them into lockdown.

About 34 firefighters were required to stop the blaze spreading to other homes and to bring it under control.

There were no injuries reported.

READ MORE: First home deposit scheme backfires as house prices tumble

The 36-year-old Dakabin man was found by a police dog squad unit shortly after the fires began, and he was arrested.

He has now been charged with one count of arson, domestic violence.

The man will face Redcliffe Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

Investors have left the market and buyers aren't biting, leaving house prices, particularly those on the more expensive end, tumbling in the past few weeks.

"We could be talking five to 10 per cent perhaps, depending suburb to suburb," auctioneer Jason Keen told 9News.

The sharp downturn has hit one mortgage-heavy cohort hardest first home buyers, who are now facing negative equity.

READ MORE: Perth braces for once-in-five-years storm as destructive wind and rain batter WA

"I regard it essentially as the second worst financial position outside of bankruptcy," Louis Christopher from SQM Research told 9News.

Across Sydney and Melbourne, 50,000 thousand people from have used the government's five per cent deposit scheme.

And that's where experts are tipping prices to drop.

"For those who've bought in a falling market with the maximum leverage, it just compounds the losses," Christopher said.

READ MORE: Retiring police officer the target of man's car, court hears

This means, for a home bought for $1 million using the government's five per cent deposit scheme, there'd be a $950,000 mortgage on the property.

If that home now drops in value by six percent, it becomes worth $940,000, meaning you're actually carrying negative equity of $10,000.

"Now these changes aren't a level up for young Australians wanting to own a home," Opposition leader Angus Taylor said about Labor's budget proposals for housing.

But Energy Minister Chris Bowen disagrees.

READ MORE: Monster fish caught off South Australia

"There'll be short-term fluctuations in the housing market, but you've got to set your policies for the medium and long-term," he said.

The tip for those in a crunch is don't panic and, if you can, don't sell.

"If there's any way to hold on, hold on," Keen said.

"We know that things can correct themselves."

A Sydney man has been beaten up and left for dead in a park near his home after telling a group of partiers to turn the music down.

The 47-year-old is stable in hospital after being found by neighbours but the incident has rattled the community who fear the worse is yet to come.

Late last night a 47-year-old who lives in a unit next to James Meehan reserve in Dee Why on the Northern Beaches called out to a group partying in the park, asking them to turn the music down.

READ MORE: Professor Richard Scolyer's wife shares sad update on his brain cancer battle

One witness said they "had a boom box" which was "really, really loud at one stage."

Another said the man had been shouting from his balcony.

He went down to ask again but police say he was surrounded and bashed, ending up in hospital with facial injuries.

"He believes he was lying there for an hour but we're to investigate that properly," Inspector Vanessa Robinson from NSW Police said.

READ MORE: Vivid Sydney show scrapped for good after drone chaos

Councillor Vincent De Luca hopes the perpetrators are found quickly.

"NSW Police need to get onto this pretty quick, our community expect arrests and expect justice," he said.

"Locals are petrified to even take their dogs for a walk.

"We have an epidemic of gang crime and that must be addressed."

READ MORE: Free tickets to soldiers for Trump's UFC event, but only if they are thin enough

Incidents where a group target an individual is not uncommon on the Northern Beaches.

Some locals spoken to by 9News said they were scared, but Inspector Robinson maintained it was safe to go to parks.

The $25m Powerball prize is one of the biggest draws so far this year.

Monica Taiatini has been sentenced for her part in Operation Highwater.

An unusual event will light up the sky this weekend if heavy rain doesn’t spoil the view.

Defence Minister Chris Penk was in the audience as Hegseth made the critical comments.

An "unusually strong" weather system which could even bring tornadoes is set to lash parts of Western Australia over the weekend.

The "once-in-five-year" storm is set to bring destructive winds of 125km/h, rainfall totals of about 50mm, up to 8-metre swells and even a chance of tornadoes.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for a large area from about Kalbarri in the north, down south to Margaret River, towards Esperance and out to the south-east coast of the state.

READ MORE: Alarm over scary trend 'exploding' in Aussie schools

The impacted area may expand over the weekend as it's an "evolving weather situation", according to the bureau.

The storm is set to lash Perth with areas of heavy rain arriving later today, which could cause flash flooding.

Meteorologist Ilana Cherny said today the system would bring damaging to destructive wind gusts, heavy falls, very large waves and potentially localised tornadoes.

"The risk of those hazards begins this evening as showers and thunderstorms start to move through," Cherny said.

"Starting from Kalbarri and the central west this evening, extending through the lower west and south-west through the early hours of tomorrow morning.

"The risk of damaging winds will extend further east throughout Sunday."

Cherny said there would be a second burst of "very strong winds" with a risk of locally destructive gusts from about Lancelin to Albany.

"That risk will be for Sunday evening into Monday morning," she said.

Severe thunderstorms could develop through the central west and extending through to the lower west.

"In addition to those winds and rain which we could see with the thunderstorms, we may also see some very localised tornadoes, which if they develop would be very fast-moving and short-lived."

READ MORE: Professor Richard Scolyer's wife shares sad update

Residents are being advised by authorities to ensure loose objects are either moved inside or locked down to prevent them becoming airborne.

Western Power have cancelled all of their planned outages over the weekend and put crews on standby for potential weather-related outages from downed power lines.

Hillarys Yacht Club has cancelled its junior sailing event as a precaution.

"Our boatswains have their skipper's ticket, and they'll be patrolling the marina and the surrounding clubhouse, just to make sure that everything's secure and there's no damage," Rick Coate from Hillarys Yacht Club told 9News.

The warning for the west coast of Australia comes after the cancellation of a severe storm warning over on the east coast, where heavy rain and storms hammered parts of the country.

The Queensland and NSW coasts, as well as regions further inland, copped a soaking this week, driven by a low-pressure system off the coast.

Falls of up to 80mm were recorded in south-eastern Queensland, and up to 70mm in NSW down to the Central Coast, with the storm warning covering the Mid North Coast, Hunter, North West Slopes and Plains, and Northern Tablelands districts.

Another cold front will approach the south-east of the country today.

As a result, showers will increase for South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and inland parts of New South Wales, with colder southerly winds coming up behind that system.

Now Gabrielle Lores has lost her bar manager licence as a result.

Diphtheria numbers in the Northern Territory reportedly surged weeks before a public health alert was issued, according to leaked NT Health data.

Unlike some states which provide public online data about disease case numbers and locations, NT Health does not release specific details publicly.

But a document the department shared with service providers this week was leaked to the ABC, which revealed some of its contents to the public today.

READ MORE: WHO boss's plea to locals, rebels over Ebola outbreak

The data reportedly showed multiple cases of diphtheria were being recorded across Darwin, the Top End and the Katherine region from late February.

A public health alert about the outbreak, which is now Australia's worst on record, was not issued by NT Health until the end of March.

An NT Health spokesperson told nine.com.au the department "implemented a timely and proportionate public health response" to the ongoing outbreak.

"The response has included the identification and treatment of all cases and close contacts including vaccination where indicated," they said.

"In addition, NT Health has commenced a vaccination campaign aimed at preventing severe illness and reducing transmission within the community."

READ MORE: US government pushes to put Donald Trump's face on new $250 bill

Vaccination clinics have been set up across the NT and more than 10,000 diphtheria-containing vaccines have been administered over the past seven weeks.

Weekly case numbers have also been declining through the month of May.

"NT Health continues to closely monitor the situation and will adjust its public health response as required to protect the health of Territorians," the spokesperson said.

NT Chief Health Officer Dr Paul Burgess confirmed earlier this week that the outbreak had spread across all five regions of the NT.

READ MORE: Son locked his dementia-suffering father in blacked-out room to steal his fortune

Diphtheria is highly contagious and can cause severe illness and death.

Even with treatment, one in 10 patients die, according to the CDC.

More than 250 diphtheria cases have been reported to the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) already, about 60 per cent of them from the NT.

One death has been recorded so far.

Earlier this month, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler announced the federal government is throwing millions at controlling the outbreak.

A spokesperson told nine.com.au the outbreak is of deep concern to the Government.

"We are working closely with affected jurisdictions to ensure a coordinated and effective national response to the diphtheria outbreak," they said.

"Within a matter of days of receiving a request for help from the NT Government, we started sending additional doses of vaccines to the Territory.

"This package is focused on increasing vaccination coverage, strengthening the health workforce in the NT, and supporting community-led responses in affected regions."