The Victoria SES warned of storm surges on the south-east coast. Photo: 123rf
A woman is dead after a tree fell on a cabin in Moama, on the Victoria-New South Wales border, during a night of severe weather that affected the entire state.
Emergency services were called to Merool Road at 3.50am on Monday.
The body of the 63-year-old was found inside. She is yet to be formally identified.
A man, also 63, was treated by paramedics for injuries to his hand and taken to Echuca Hospital for further treatment.
Winds reaching 146km/h have battered Victoria overnight, with the State Emergency Service (SES) receiving more than a thousand calls for help
A powerful cold front is moving eastwards across the state, bringing some of the most severe weather conditions of the year.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has recorded wind gusts of 146km/h in Wilsons Promontory, in Victoria's south-east.
The Alpine areas have recorded winds of more than 130km/h, Port Fairy and the Otways in the state's south-west had gusts of more than 100km/h while there were 113km/h winds in St Kilda, in Melbourne.
The BOM on Sunday likened the strength of the winds to a category two or three cyclone.
A house has lost part of its roof in Parkdale and a tree has fallen onto a property in Mordialloc, both in Melbourne's south-east, as SES crews battle dangerous conditions while assessing and responding to jobs.
There are about 140,000 properties without power in Victoria's east, Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula and the state's south-west.
SES State Duty Officer Kate Turner told ABC Radio Melbourne the damage has been spread across the state, but Warragul, Morwell, Emerald, Hastings and Ballarat are among the worst hit areas.
"For the most part we've seen lots and lots of trees on roads but also onto people's houses and then a fair few roof tiles coming amiss as that wind has kicked in overnight," Turner said.
She said she expected more calls as people woke and discovered damage around their properties.
Emma Tyner from United Energy said the damage to power lines and infrastructure could take days to repair.
"These will take a number of days to get people back on. This won't be a one day event unfortunately
"As the day progresses and our crews continue to go out and assess damage, we'll have a better understanding of how long this will take us," Tyner said.
Customers are being updated by text message after United Energy's outage website went down.
Tyner urged people to stay well clear of any fallen lines.
"Immediately just assume it's a power line and call us directly but otherwise if you don't have our number call emergency services."
The Department of Transport is urging motorists to drive with extreme caution due to fallen trees and power light outages.
High Street is closed in Armadale, in Melbourne's inner south-east, due to debris from a building blocking the road.
The Maroondah Highway in the Yarra Valley is cut in several areas by fallen trees.
A tree has fallen across rail lines in Melbourne, suspending the Sandringham and Frankston suburban lines and buses are replacing trains on V/Line's Gippsland regional service.
The cold front is continuing to move eastwards and will be followed by a vigorous west to north-westerly airstream which will bring more damaging winds and scattered thunderstorms.
Conditions are expected to ease during late Monday afternoon and evening.
The BOM's senior forecaster Rod Dickson said the worst of the winds was probably over.
"But there's still the risk of damaging winds across southern and mountain areas of the state today with quite squally westerly winds with showers passing through."
Dixon said waves had reached 8m along the far south-west coast.
He said higher than normal tides are forecast for the Victorian coast and Port Phillip which may inundate low lying areas.
"These strong westerly winds are really preventing the water from moving out of the bay so we do see that water stack up with the high tides."
He said the high tide along East Gippsland was a particular area of concern.
A Watch and Act alert remains in place for the state's north-east ranges as well as for dangerous surf conditions and storm surges along the south-west coast.
SES chief officer Tim Wiebusch said winds as strong as the ones seen on Monday morning were seen only every "three to five years".
It comes after a week of wild weather which left 600 homes damaged and more than 35,000 homes without power.
Parks Victoria has closed a number of piers due to the dangerous coastal conditions.
Meanwhile, more than 50 fire firefighters were called to a grass and scrub fire south of Erica in Gippsland early on Monday morning.
The fire at Moondarra ignited at approximately 1.30am and was fanned by severe wind gusts.
Erica and District Fire Brigade captain Russell Wright said he had to cut through four downed trees to reach the blaze which took three hours to control.
"Thankfully it started to rain which has really helped us to bring that fire under control," he said.
"We faced quite strong winds obviously fuelling the fire along, which jumped the main road heading to the other side towards Jacobs Creek and Moondarra."
- ABC
