There were no immediate reports of deaths, but Queensland premier Anna Bligh warned of extensive damage to a region already reeling from months of flooding.

Herewith a chronology of the most powerful severe tropical cyclones to hit Australia since Tracy obliterated Darwin in 1974, based on Bureau of Meteorology records:

December 1974: Severe Tropical Cyclone Tracy, a much smaller storm than Yasi, kills 71 people around Darwin and flattens more than 90 percent of the northern city's houses.

March-April 1978: Alby kills five people in Western Australia and causes widespread damage.

January 1981: Mabel causes major disruption to offshore oil drilling on Australia's northwest coast with two rigs losing their moorings in heavy seas, and shuts down mining on the Pilbara coast.

March 1985: Sandy triggers extensive flooding around the sparsely populated Gulf of Carpentaria and storm surges as high as 3.5 metres (12 feet). A pilot whale is spotted one kilometre (half-a-mile) inland.

February 1995: Bobby, a massive cyclone sweeping across the entire length of northwest Australia's coast from Darwin to Exmouth, kills eight people including seven on a pair of stricken fishing trawlers.

March 1997: Justin, after killing at least 30 people in Papua New Guinea, causes the deaths of five people offshore when their yacht is destroyed and two people on land with major damage between Cairns and Townsville in Queensland.

December 1998: Category five Thelma is the most intense cyclone to threaten Darwin since Tracy in 1974, but misses the city and flooding is confined to outlying rural areas.

March 2006: Category four Larry, half the size of Yasi, crosses the Queensland coast just south of Cairns. No lives are lost but damage to farmland reaches Aus$1.5 billion.

April 2006: Monica, another category five storm, was the strongest cyclone recorded in Australia before Yasi, with sustained wind speeds of 250 kilometres (155 miles) per hour.

Monica crossed the northern Cape York Peninsula at a remote location, missing Aboriginal townships, but felled up to 70 percent of trees in the area.

February-March 2007: Category five George kills three people south of Port Hedland in northwest Australia.

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