Millions of residents along Australia’s eastern coast are bracing for the arrival of a very slow-moving storm, the most southerly tropical cyclone to threaten the region in more than 50 years.

Schools are closed, public transport has stopped and desperate residents are getting around shortages of sandbags by buying sacks of potting mix as a region of eastern Australia is lashed by wind and rain from a rare approaching tropical cyclone.

Cyclone Alfred is set to bring damaging winds and heavy rain to Australia's east coast when it makes landfall as a category 2 storm later this week. It's the first cyclone to hit the region in since Cyclone Zoe in 1974.