Pilbara ports cleared as cyclone looms

The Pilbara’s resources megaports are being cleared as ex-tropical cyclone Lincoln moves into the region, where it is expected to re-intensify and make landfall this weekend.

Pilbara Ports on Wednesday night began clearing the ports of Dampier, Ashburton, Cape Preston and Varanus Island ahead of ex-TC Lincoln’s arrival to protect infrastructure from damage.

Clearing of the impacted ports and anchorages is expected to be completed by tonight.

The tropical low has dumped heavy rain over parts of the northern Kimberley in the past few days and currently sits about 165 kilometres off the Dampier Peninsula.

The Bureau of Meteorology expects Lincoln to re-intensify to cyclone strength tonight and begin tracking south towards the west Pilbara or upper Gascoyne coast by tomorrow afternoon.

Coastal communities of Roebourne, Karratha, Onslow and Exmouth are on blue alert for the tropical low, which could bring destructive wind gusts of 140km per hour by Saturday.

At this stage most forecasting services have Lincoln crossing the coast between the North West Cape and Carnarvon as a category two system on Saturday night before sweeping inland through the Mid West and Wheatbelt regions, where 100 millimetres of rain could fall.

The last cyclone to affect Carnarvon was Seroja in 2021, which eventually made landfall further south in Kalbarri, causing major damage to the region where buildings are not made to cyclone standards.

The Department of Fire and Emergency Services has sent incident management personnel and extra volunteers to the region in preparation for any damage.

The tropical low is the first likely to develop into a cyclone in Western Australia this season, a rarity for a region that can usually expect three to five systems to develop between November and April.

The lack of monsoonal weather this season has been felt along the coast from Broome to Karratha, where little rain has fallen to date.

Karratha has recorded just 1.2mm of rain this wet season, Port Hedland has recorded 25.2mm, and Broome 35.2mm.