Hi again from Cairns!
We battened down the house and decided our lives were more valuable than our home. We secured the house, packed all our precious belongings in car and headed inland. We went to a large school where our son in law is a manager. It has a huge very strong old convent building. We all spent the night on air matresses whilst the storm passed. Very strong winds and much rain but we were safe. Luckily the eye passed just south of Cairns so our house is ok. We returned home late today. The small towns south of us have been very badly hit but, amazingly, no reports of fatalities or serious injury. Speaks volumes for our disaster planning and preparation. Just heavy rain now with thunderstorms. We had 5.5 inches of rain in one hour this evening!
Thank you all for your thoughts.