A whirlwind nicknamed a "grassnado" swept across a rural property on the outskirts of Maryborough in southeast Queensland on Wednesday afternoon, flinging large clumps of grass several metres into the air and startling local residents who filmed the spectacle. The phenomenon, technically known as a willy-willy or dust devil, is not an actual tornado but a localised spinning column of air, and while dramatic to witness, such events are typically short-lived and far less destructive than genuine tornadoes.

Resident Michelle Pryor-Ball, who spoke to the Courier Mail, estimated the whirlwind was about 10 metres across and at least 25 metres high, saying she and others were "so surprised" by its scale. Social media users shared similar astonishment, with some initially mistaking the debris for a flock of birds before realising it was a willy-willy. Weather page Higgins Storm Chasing, which coined the "grassnado" label, explained that warming surface air becomes buoyant and rises, creating a small pocket of low pressure that draws in surrounding air, sometimes forming these dust devils that pick up loose debris such as grass and dust as they rotate.