Emergency services were called to the scene about 4pm.

Three Chinese warships off Australia's north-east coast are being monitored by Defence, just days after a Chinese fighter jet deployed flares in close proximity to an Australian surveillance plane in the South China Sea.

A Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft was conducting a routine maritime surveillance patrol in the South China Sea on Tuesday when the interaction with the Chinese PLA-AF J-16 fighter aircraft occurred.

"The PLA-AF aircraft released flares in close proximity to the RAAF P-8A aircraft," Defence said in a statement.

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"This was an unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre that posed a risk to the aircraft and personnel."

There were no injuries to Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel or damage to the RAAF P-8A.

"The safety and wellbeing of our ADF personnel continues to be our utmost priority," the spokesperson said.

"Australia expects all countries, including China, to operate their militaries in a safe and professional manner.

"For decades, the ADF has undertaken maritime surveillance activities in the region and does so in accordance with international law, exercising the right to freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters and airspace."

The flare incident comes after a similar event in May last year when a Chinese jet fighter dropped flares in front of an Australian Navy helicopter in international waters.

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Defence is also monitoring a People's Liberation Army-Navy task group of three ships operating to the north-east of Australia including a Jiangkai-class frigate, a support vessel and a Renhai-class cruiser.

Defence analyst Malcolm Davis described the latter as "one of the world's most heavily armed warships in existence".

"We have 112 vertical launch system capabilities that can fire missiles," Davis said.

"These ships are operating in our economic exclusion zone.

"Our international law of the sea says that naval vessels can enter the economic exclusion zones of other countries.

"We'll be watching them very closely indeed to make sure they don't come any closer, particularly within our 12-nautical-mile territorial seas."

The vessels travelled through South-East Asia, before entering Australia's maritime approaches.

One of the vessels, the Hengyang, travelled through waters to Australia's north.

"Australia respects the rights of all states to exercise freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, just as we expect others to respect Australia's right to do the same," Defence said.

"Defence will continue to monitor the activities of the task group in Australia's maritime approaches with a combination of capabilities, including air and maritime assets."

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Iced coffee fans have been left with a sour taste in their mouths after a popular Australian brand mistakenly informed them they had won a $1000 prize.

Dare Iced Coffee sent out emails to customers who entered its "Daremergency" promotion yesterday with a message of congratulations and information about their winnings.

The promotion, which asked customers to scan a QR code and enter details to win a share in a $1 million prize, erroneously alerted entrants they had won – but hours later, Dare sent a follow-up email with a correction.

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"We are writing to provide an important update regarding a communication you received this morning about being notified as a provisional weekly winner in our promotion," Dare's email with the subject line "Daremergency Correction" read.

"We regret to inform you that a technical error occurred and, upon review, we can confirm that you were not a valid winner in this instance.

"Accordingly, please disregard the communication from this morning that was sent in error."

Dare apologised to the non-winners and acknowledged it was a "disappointing" outcome.

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The original email told winners they had won the weekly draw and would be given a $1000 prepaid Mastercard.

Some customers who were sent the correction email took to social media to express their disappointment.

Dare's parent company Bega apologised for the error in a statement to 9news.com.au.

"We sincerely apologise for a technical error that resulted in incorrect provisional winner notifications being sent to some participants in our recent Daremergency promotion," a spokesperson said.

"This issue was due to an unexpected system malfunction (with a third-party provider) and we are actively investigating the cause to ensure it does not happen again.

"We understand this may have led to confusion and disappointment, and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused.

"We were made aware of the error on Wednesday 12 February and affected participants were contacted immediately to clarify the situation."

Dare said the emails were sent to a "very small portion" of customers and confirmed the company plans to send the impacted people a $50 e-gift card.

"While no system is ever completely immune to human or technical errors, we're confident that the measures we've implemented will ensure that winners will be notified correctly moving forward and prevent a repeat of this issue," the spokesperson added.

"Transparency and fairness are our top priorities, and we remain committed to ensuring all of our promotions are run with integrity."

A similar mistake was made by Australian bread company Helga's in November last year.

Queensland couple Mark and Lynne Lillington were told they'd won a $1000 cash prize, however never received their full earnings after being told there had been an issue with the brand's website.

The pensioners were one of hundreds of people who were mistakenly told they were "provisional winners".

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‘If I were a school student I would have loved a pie as my taxpayer-funded school lunch.’

Ex-MP says blogger’s urging to put images on 4Chan is ‘like trying to get me killed’.

Supermarkets and schools have been closed and residents warned to prepare for the worst as severe Tropical Cyclone Zelia barrels towards the Western Australia coast.

The cyclone has developed into an intense category five system and is expected to make landfall on the Pilbara coast tomorrow, the Bureau of Meteorology said today.

Zelia is forecast to bring extremely destructive winds and intense rainfall which will likely lead to flash flooding.

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"Category five cyclones have wind gusts exceeding 280km/h, we could expect to see wind speeds of this magnitude at the core," WA Bureau of Meteorology manager James Ashley said.

"This is a very dangerous system that will cause significant impact."

A dangerous storm surge is also expected to hit when Zelia makes landfall tomorrow, persisting into Saturday.

WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Darren Klemm said Zelia is expected to trigger dangerous flash flooding across impacted regions including Karratha, Port Hedland and Dampier.

Major retail shops and 12 schools are shut, along with regional airports.

Several roads have also been closed in preparation for flooding.

"Impacts to secondary and unsealed roads are expected, which will result in some communities being isolated," Klemm said.

"DFES will undertake resupply missions after the cyclone makes landfall."

Klemm warned residents to prepare for wild weather, to take shelter or evacuate if necessary and to keep across alerts.

Less than an hour ago, 40,000 messages were sent to residents following an upgrade of the watch and act alert.

One evacuation centre has been opened in South Hedland and a second is being prepared in Karratha.

Klemm said DFES has secured aircraft and extra flood boats in preparation for emergency evacuations.

There are 50 mobilised incident management teams in place to prepare for Zelia.

The Bureau of Meteorology earlier today warned Zelia was "rapidly intensifying" as it moved west, just off the Pilbara coast, after reaching category four overnight.

There is a cyclone "watch and act" alert in place for residents in Bidyadanga to Dampier, including Port Hedland, Karratha and Dampier, and extending inland to Marble Bar.

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Those living between Karratha and Bidyadanga, including Port Hedland, have been warned to watch for a dangerous storm tide as the cyclone rolls towards the coast.

Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said Zelia was a "very organised" and "very intense" tropical cyclone and already well on its way to reach the WA coast.

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Damaging wind gusts reaching 290km/h and more than 500mm of rain are forecast for communities across the Pilbara coast from tonight, with the wild weather set to intensify tomorrow.

"Currently, a category four system has rapidly intensified overnight and likely to become a category five system later today," Narramore said.

"We're already seeing falls of 80 to 90mm around Port Hedland and even isolated falls in excess of 100, and we're likely to see many more millimeters on top of that."

The destructive inner core of the cyclone is expected to cross the coast between Whim Creek and DeGrey, reaching Port Hedland, tomorrow afternoon and evening.

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Tropical Cyclone Zelia is now about 140km north-west of Port Hedland and 240km north-east of Karratha.

An extra 40 emergency services personnel have been deployed to the Pilbara region as well as five flood boats with 10 crews, and four additional aircraft are on standby, including a rescue chopper with a winch.

Residents near the DeGrey river catchment and around the Shaw and Pilbara rivers have been warned to be on alert for flash flooding.

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A man is dead, a toddler is fighting for life, and three others have been been injured after they escaped a burning home in Victoria's north-west.

Firefighters spent almost half an hour extinguishing the blaze at the single-storey home on Barr Street in Maryborough, north of Ballarat, after it caught fire just after 11.30am.

A man, who is yet to be formally identified was pulled from the home suffering cardiac arrest, but could not be revived.

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A two-year-old child was also pulled from the home by firefighters and was airlifted to the Royal Children's Hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Two women in their 30s and 60s and a three-year-old child all managed to escape the home.

They suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

It's understood the victims of the fire are related.

Police said it was too early to determine the cause of the fire.

"Well do a thorough investigation … and we'll be able to advise further once we progress the investigation," Senior Sergeant David Flood said.

"For a rural country town, obviously people are well known and well connected, so this is tragic… It's unexpected."

A crime scene has been established around the home, where police and the arson squad are expected to remain for several hours.

The fire is not being treated as suspicious at this stage.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

Loraine Carpenter should be getting ready to settle into a comfortable retirement, having worked hard over the years to build up her own business.

Instead, the 75-year-old from Brisbane says she is now looking to move overseas because she can no longer afford to live in Australia.

Up until last year, Carpenter had a sizeable nest egg to fall back on.

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That's now almost all gone, thanks to scammers who fleeced her of half a million dollars in the space of five months.

The nightmare began for Carpenter in September 2022 when she was searching for somewhere to invest that nest egg.

"I had $700,000 because I had just sold my mother's house and my house," she told 9news.com.au.

At the time, interest rates were at rock bottom, and term deposits were offering very little in the way of returns.

Carpenter said it was a dodgy celebrity deepfake advertisement on Facebook that caught her attention. 

"I think the one I saw was (tennis player) Ash Barty, but they were rife at the time," Carpenter said.

Carpenter followed a link from the ad, which directed her to a website where she was told to pay a deposit of $US250 to begin investing with TBX Titanium (also known as the Exchange Bank), which billed itself as an online broker of cryptocurrencies. 

Not long after, a man with an American accent called her.

"His name was Mike and he told me he was in a trading room. It was very noisy and all the voices in the background had American accents," Carpenter said.

Carpenter said she was reassured that the bank account she was told to transfer her investments into was an Australian one, at Bendigo Bank. 

However, an investigation by the NSW Police Cybercrime Squad and the St George Area Command later revealed the woman who set up the account had been used as a mule. 

Police discovered the woman had responded to a job ad on Facebook from a fake UK employment agency, who requested she open up the bank account and register the business.

Carpenter said she did a search online about the Exchange Bank and only saw positive reviews.

She began making weekly, and sometimes even bi-weekly, deposits of $25,000 into the Bendigo Bank account.

Carpenter said her bank, ANZ, made a call to her after the first withdrawal to check the transaction.

"They phoned up and said there is a big chunk of money going out. And I said yes, I authorised that. They didn't ask again."

To see her investments, Carpenter was directed to a fake website, which showed an elaborate, but bogus trading platform.

There were market surges and falls.

At one point, Carpenter said her investment plunged $US17,000 ($27,000) overnight. 

"That reassured me, actually, that the whole thing was operating as a trading platform should," Carpenter said.

Carpenter said the man she was speaking with would also reassure her that the money was in safe hands.

"I quite often said to him, 'I'm playing with a big chunk of my money here.'"

"Towards the end, I said, 'We are now playing with my house.' And he said, 'Look, it's all fine.'" 

Wanting to split the risk of her investments, Carpenter said she requested $US150,000 be transferred into a bonafide Exodus wallet, and the scammer agreed.

However, Carpenter said when she tried to take some money out of the Exodus wallet, the transfer kept bouncing back.

Things unravelled further when she called Exodus, and a staff member told her what she thought was $US150,000 was just a worthless token.

"He said, it's not real money," Carpenter said.

The Exodus staff member also identified 87 other transactions that had been made from the same Bendigo Bank account, suggesting the scammers were walking away with tens of millions of dollars from Australian victims.

Do you know more about the 'Exchange Bank' scam? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at