SYDNEY, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Australian authorities have issued a tropical cyclone warning for a system that is expected to bring severe impacts to the northeastern state of Queensland.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said that Tropical Cyclone Narelle was around 1,000 km off the east coast of Far North Queensland as of 4 a.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday (1800 GMT on Tuesday) and tracking towards making landfall late on Thursday or early on Friday.

It said that the cyclone was at Category 2 strength as of Wednesday and expected to reach Category 4 intensity before making landfall.

The BoM has declared a cyclone watch zone for a 700-km stretch of the Far North Queensland Coast that includes the resort town of Port Douglas with a population of around 5,500 people.

"Very destructive wind gusts in excess of 200 km per hour are possible near the center of Tropical Cyclone Narelle as it crosses the coast," it said.

It said that damaging wind gusts could hit the area from Thursday morning local time, followed by heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding from Thursday evening. ■