A father killed in an alleged hit and run in Perth is being remembered as “one in a million”. A Perth-bound Qantas aircraft swiftly diverted, when the pilot declared an on-board emergency due to smoke filling the cockpit.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to cross the southeast Queensland coast late this Thursday as a Category 2 storm. The last tropical cyclone to make landfall in the region was ex-Tropical Cyclone Zoe in 1974, half a century ago.

It will be the first time the south-east has been in the direct firing line of a tropical cyclone in several decades.