In late December, another tropical low developed in the Coral Sea and headed west over the Cape York Peninsula south of Lockhart River on Sunday 30 December. The low tracked back east and reached tropical cyclone (category 1) strength over the north-west Gulf of Carpentaria on the morning of 1 January 2019. Named tropical cyclone Penny, the system again made landfall on the Cape south of Weipa that afternoon, uprooting trees and flooding roads before weakening to a tropical low.

As the system re-entered the Coral Sea, it re-intensified into a category 2 system then turned west, back towards north Queensland, weakening again as it approached the coast. Penny remained active over the Coral Sea and Queensland’s tropical east coast until 9 January. The Bureau of Meteorology issued severe weather warnings and flood warnings as Penny approached the coast on 9 January, producing moderate to locally heavy falls along Queensland’s central and Capricornia coasts on 9 and 10 January.

The Burdekin area received significant rainfall overnight on 9 January, with 108 millimetres falling at Groper Creek between midnight and 3.00am, and Strathbogie, south of Ayr, recorded 360 millimetres in 24 hours. Flood-affected communities in 10 local government areas including Cook, Douglas, Hope Vale, Mapoon, Northern Peninsula, Pormpuraaw, Torres, Torres Strait Island, Whitsunday and Wujal became eligible for joint Commonwealth–State disaster recovery funding as a result of Penny and the tropical low that followed.