Residents in the Western Australian tourist town of Broome have been spared the worst after Tropical Cyclone Joyce failed to intensify to a category three system and headed down the Kimberley coast.

A yellow alert had been in place for the town since Wednesday afternoon and remained in place on Friday afternoon for areas south of the Aboriginal community of Bidyadanga to Wallal Downs as Joyce continued to journey down the seaboard.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Joyce was now expected to cross the Kimberley coast as a category one cyclone.

Joyce was declared a category one cyclone on Thursday morning with winds of 65km/h, and had been forecast to grow to a far more dangerous category three on Friday with winds up to 180km/h.

“It’s passed Bidyadanga, but sitting near the coast it means that it hasn’t strengthened overnight,” forecaster Craig Earl-Spurr said.

“So the good thing about it getting to the coast a bit sooner is that it has less time to develop and we don’t expect to see any impacts greater than a category one.”

🌀 Tropical Cyclone Joyce 🌀



An ALL CLEAR has been issued for people in #Broome to #Bidyadanga.



The threat has passed but take care to avoid the dangers caused by damage. https://t.co/B0MlUB0OPf pic.twitter.com/11gq7iQugD — ABC Emergency (@ABCemergency) January 12, 2018

Joyce was early on Friday afternoon about 10km off the coast of Eight Mile beach and was expected to keep moving on a south-westerly trajectory, weakening as it hit the mainland overnight, before moving through the central Pilbara and inland Gascoyne on Saturday.

The wind threat was expected to ease later on Friday, but heavy rainfall was likely to continue, with Broome recording 88mm in the past 24 hours.

Perth was forecast to receive some heavy rain due to the unstable fall, but when and how much was uncertain.

Main roads remained closed including Broome Cape Leveque Road and Great Northern Highway between Roebuck Roadhouse and Marble Bar Road Intersection.

🚗GREAT NORTHERN HIGHWAY UPDATE🚗

Road between Willare and Roebuck Roadhouse Plains closed.

Road between Port Hedland and Broome open. pic.twitter.com/WaqAcRsTBd — ABC Kimberley (@abckimberley) January 12, 2018

A flood warning was in place for the West Kimberley district and residents in the De Grey river catchment, including the towns of Marble Bar and Nullagine, with a flood watch active for Pilbara coastal rivers, Fortescue river, Ashburton river and Gascoyne coast rivers catchments.

It was the region’s second cyclone in a fortnight after Tropical Cyclone Hilda hit the Broome area.