Thousands of Victorian households and businesses are without power after wild winds lashed the state overnight.
AusNet Services reported the most unplanned outages on Wednesday morning, with more than 15,000 as of about 9am. The outages were significant east of Melbourne and in the state's far southeast.
By about 11am, the number of properties without power had dwindled only slightly to nearly 12,900.
Victoria's State Emergency Service fielded 254 calls for help in the 12 hours to 8.20am on Wednesday, with 214 for fallen trees.
"Take care while out on the road this morning, and watch out for fallen trees, branches and powerlines," the organisation warned social media followers.
Bacchus Marsh Urgent Care northwest of Melbourne was among the properties damaged, with Western Health announcing its temporary closure on Wednesday.
Strong winds lashed the state into the early hours of the morning, with Mt Hotham recording gusts of 128km/h about 2.20am, and Mt William recording 122km/h about 12am.
Melbourne Airport recorded gusts of 82km/h just after 12.30am, while Moorabbin Airport recorded 85km/h about 1.15am.
A severe weather warning remains in place on Wednesday morning for damaging winds in parts of East Gippsland, along with the northeast, west, and South Gippsland forecast districts.
The winds are due to a strong cold front moving over eastern Victoria, which is bringing with it damaging winds with peak gusts of up to 110km/h in the eastern ranges.
Conditions are expected to ease off in the area through Wednesday afternoon.
However, the Bureau of Meteorology warns another cold front would approach the state late on Wednesday evening, with further damaging winds expected in the southwest.
Peak gusts are forecast to reach about 90km/h.
There is also an air quality warning for winds blowing dust in from central Australia on Wednesday morning through to Thursday.
Melbourne and Geelong are both forecast to have poor air quality as a result.
Australian Associated Press
