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A tornado-like water spout that formed off the coast of a Western Australian town has made landfall, according to a local fisherman.

The spout startled seaside residents in Kalbarri, about 580km north of Perth, when it appeared on Sunday afternoon.

Local fisherman Dean Robins was in his driveway when he spotted the funnel-like weather feature.

“I’ve seen this unusual cloud that was sort of funnelling down,” he said.

“We sort of weren’t too sure whether to run inside or not because it was … heading our way, but it sort of crossed a little way to the north of us.”

Mr Robins, who has only ever witnessed water spouts at sea, said it was the first one he had seen cross land.

“You could actually see the water funnelling up and getting drawn up through the clouds,” he said.

“I said to my wife ‘this is going to hit land’.

“No sooner had I said that, you could hear some bangs and crashes and what I thought were birds at first, were getting drawn up into the sky.

“But that was just debris, branches and the likes.”