Fresh winds to hit already battered southeast Australia

More wild winds are tipped to hit southeast Australian states cleaning up after severe weather that cut power to tens of thousands of homes.

About 13,000 properties remained without electricity in Victoria on Wednesday afternoon, while more than 10,000 were still off the grid in Tasmania.

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a "fresh burst" of damaging winds for parts of the two states on Wednesday night with potentially stronger gusts at higher elevations.

There is also a severe wind warning for the NSW south coast, southern tablelands and Snowy Mountains.

A second front, which could extend into South Australia, is tipped to arrive in the nation's southeast on Thursday night ahead of a calmer weekend.

However, senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said the winds were unlikely to be as intense or widespread as those in recent days.

A 63-year-old woman died in NSW on Monday when a tree fell on her holiday park cabin, while hundreds of homes have been damaged in Victoria.

People have been urged to not swim in waters in Port Phillip Bay off Melbourne due to a decline in water quality because of stormwater run-off.

Victoria's Environment Protection Authority has issued a water quality alert for bay beaches.

Red algae carpeted St Kilda beach on Tuesday, with the authority warning the water could have an effect on the health of people or their pets.

"We always warn against swimming for up to 48 hours after rainfall," authority water scientist Darren Cottam said.

"(However) with the current weather conditions and extended high winds, it could be a few days yet before water quality returns to the usual safe levels."

In Tasmania's Derwent Valley, 37 properties were damaged by flooding, including two homes and sports facilities, while strong winds wreaked havoc predominantly in the state's north.

TasFarmers president Ian Sauer said the damage bill for the agriculture sector was likely to be in the millions.

He said some farmers suffered multiple outages over days and had to call in generators.

"The word … even from older farmers is this was probably the biggest sustained weather event they could remember," he said.

"They couldn't keep milk cold. They couldn't milk the cows.

"A lot of farmers (had) centre pivot (irrigators) blown over - they are very expensive.

"Shed roofs were ripped off, buildings, vehicles have been damaged.

"In a couple of instances, cows were sheltering under trees. Trees got blown over and killed the cows."

Dairy and cheese company Ashgrove, one of Tasmania's leading producers, said its production had been interrupted.

Tasmanian SES executive director Mick Lowe urged people to keep an eye on alerts with further rain also forecast in coming days.

"If you're cleaning up, please be safe. Be alert to the dangers of damaged trees and fallen power lines," he said.

Tasmania's government announced payments of $350 would be available for people who have been without power for 72 hours or more.