Below is an article published by The Age:

This morning's [2 April 2007] 8.1-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami triggered panic around the south Pacific as alerts were issued of possible impending deadly waves.

In Queensland, many coastal residents evacuated their homes and fled to higher ground.

The warnings also sparked a massive emergency response statewide which involved the cancellation of surgery at hospitals, the closing and evacuation of beaches and the cancellation of flights.

Childcare centres in the Cairns CBD were evacuated while Townsville City Council even activated its local disaster management group.

Long queues of cars jammed roads out of Cairns as residents filed out of the tourist city headed for the Kuranda Range.
While initially warnings were issued for the entire coast of Australia, including Tasmania, the Bureau of Meteorology downgraded their warnings early this afternoon.

The quake, measuring 8.1, struck at 6.40am Queensland time about 350 kilometres west-north-west of the Solomons Island capital Honiara at a depth of 10 kilometres, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said.

Some shops around Cooktown, which was the first Queensland coastal area expected to be hit, closed for the day while panicked locals fled in their cars to higher ground.

David Young, manager of Cooktown's West Coast Hotel, this morning said there was a "lot of movement" around the town.

"People are fuelling up cars . . . they want to make sure they can get out just in case," he said.

'Eerie'

"Pretty much all along the main street, everything shut down - the banks and post office and hotels and so on because it's fairly low-lying ground there,'' Cooktown resident Beverley Stone said.

"It was quite eerie. Having seen the effect of the tsunami overseas, people weren't prepared to take any chances."

Cook shire CEO Mark Pitt said Cooktown was breathing a collective sigh of relief after a nervous morning.

"There was a fair degree of nervousness as you would imagine 'cause this isn't something that happens every day here," he said.

"We're much more used to cyclones rather than tsunamis."

In the Papua New Guinea port city of Rabaul, residents fled as the sea drained, a possible pointer to a coming tsunami. The Australian government said a 3-metre wave struck the western Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville.

Along with all of Queensland, NSW also closed beaches along Australia's east coast were shut and ferry services halted on Sydney Harbour.

It was the first time beaches in the two states had been simultaneously closed.

However, thousands of people instructed to evacuate Bondi Beach today stayed on in defiance of the tsunami warnings.

Many were unaware of beach closures.