Tropical cyclone crossing Western Australian coast

A tropical cyclone hit Australia’s resource-rich northwest coast on Wednesday, bringing winds of up to 165km an hour as it crossed the shore near the tiny community of Pardoo.

Severe tropical cyclone ''Rusty'' had been sitting offshore for several days, slowly intensifying as it edged towards the Pilbara coast and bringing heavy rain and gale-force winds to the iron ore region.

“It is in the process of crossing,” Neil Bennett from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology said just after 1pm (HK time), adding it was too soon to say whether it had caused any damage.

“Wind gusts in excess of 165km/h are in that area.”

Bennett said the storm had been downgraded from a category 4 storm, just one notch short of the top category, to a category 3.

The bureau had expected Rusty to make landfall close to Port Hedland, 1,300km north of Perth, but Bennett said the major iron ore port appeared to have escaped the full brunt of the storm.

“It looks as if Hedland has dodged the bullet, so to speak, because the worst of the winds are away from Hedland,” he said.