Tropical Cyclone Oma has strengthened to category 3 and is expected to come close to the south-east Queensland coast and potentially make landfall.

Meteorologist Adam Blazak said a cyclone watch could be issued on Wednesday afternoon, on top of the hazardous surf warnings already in place.

Tropical Cyclone Oma's size as shown by satellite images. Credit:Bureau of Meteorology

On Tuesday, some of the weather bureau's modelling predicted the tropical cyclone to track west towards Queensland, while other models showed it was likely to head south for New Zealand.

The system is likely to whip up dangerous swells, significantly erode beaches, dump isolated falls of 300 millimetres and bring wind gusts faster than 100km/h.