American Marconi Wireless News - Cyclone Alfred downgraded to tropical low as it nears Australia

The former tropical cyclone lay about 65 kilometres (40 miles) off the coast of the Queensland capital Brisbane, government forecasters said in a final update.

Now deprived of its gale-force winds, the storm was slowly moving north and was expected to cross over the mainland later in the morning, it said.

"Despite its weakening, heavy rainfall is likely to continue over southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales during the weekend," the bureau of meteorology said.

The rains could still lead to "dangerous and life-threatening" flash flooding across the 400-kilometre (250-mile) stretch of coastline straddling the two states.

One man was missing after his four-wheel drive vehicle was swept off a bridge into a rain-swollen river the previous day in northern New South Wales.

He clambered out of the vehicle and tried in vain to cling to a branch. "The man was swept from the tree and seen to go beneath the water where he has not been sighted since," police said in a statement.

A "staggering" number of more than 239,000 properties in southeast Queensland were without power on Saturday morning after winds toppled power lines or blew trees and debris into them, utility group Energex said.

It had been too dangerous for crews to work in some blacked-out areas, Energex Brisbane area manager Chris Graham told national broadcaster ABC.

L.Harper--AMWN