Thousands of kilometres from the Tongan volcano, residents in Queensland woke to a spectacular sunrise.
Many in regional Queensland have taken to social media to share their photos and describe the event as eerie, spectacular, and incredible.
The powerful quake on Sunday sent a plume of ash high into the sky, which painted the early morning sky a range of vivid colours.
The high blanket of cloud also changed the normally brilliantly bright sun into an ominous golden orb.
Kathryn Emerson from the CSIRO said the wind conditions pushed the plume towards the Australian coast.
"Looking at the wind direction forecast for this morning, it does indeed look like the wind has travelled from Tonga overnight and this morning," Dr Emerson said.
All the colours of the rainbow
From the far north of Queensland and into parts of central and southern Queensland, the skies changed from deep reds and oranges to purple and pink within minutes.
Dr Emerson said the particles in the atmosphere and the time of day were the reasons for the spectacular skies and the sun looking different.
"It's all to do with the scattering of light," she said.
"At sunrise and sunset there's a greater distance for the light to travel through, so there's more of an opportunity for the light to be scattered.
Dr Emerson said it was also possible for the cloud to create stunning sunsets.
"As long as the wind direction is heading towards Queensland and there are particles in the atmosphere you will get pretty sunsets happening as well."
Any impacts on health?
The plume of volcanic ash contains a variety of elements, some of which, such as sulphuric acid, can be hazardous to human health.
Dr Emerson said, given the powerful explosion, the ash cloud was unlikely to pose any issues in Australia.
"It was very explosive and the ash has gone quite high up into the atmosphere — about 20 kilometres or so," she said.
"I've had a look at air quality monitors in Queensland and there's barely any elevated particle concentrations at the surface.
