CYCLONE WATCH

GULF RESIDENTS ON EDGE:

AN EMERGENCY beacon has saved the life of a canoeist rescued in stormy seas near the top of Cape York.

Peter Graham, of Volunteer Marine Rescue Queensland, said the man, age unknown, was travelling from Seisia to Mapoon in a 6m dory canoe. He was heading for Old Mapoon on the Western Cape on Tuesday afternoon.

“At mid-afternoon, he activated his EPIRB and the signal was picked up by the rescue coordination centre, who contacted Thursday Island water police,” he said.

“The seas at the time with the low and impending cyclone were running at 3.5-4m with a very strong wind from the west.”

Mr Graham said the Thursday Island rescue helicopter was dispatched and the man was picked up on a beach at McDonald River and flown to Bamaga Hospital with unknown injuries.

“He’d attempted to enter the river for shelter and the vessel rolled as he did so,” he said.

Mr Graham said if he did not have the emergency beacon, “nobody would have known”.

In the meantime, Carpentaria Shire residents are calmly keeping an eye on the developing tropical low that is expected to form into the region’s second cyclone in less than a month.

On Tuesday, the Bureau of Meteorology issued a cyclone watch between Aurukun, Karumba and Mornington Island, after a slow-moving tropical low in the Gulf of Carpentaria continued to intensify.

It comes as the local commercial marine industry prepares days out from the start of the fishing season.

With the system tracking east and forecasts predicting it could potentially reach category two strength by Friday, Carpentaria Shire Council mayor Jack Bawden said locals had learned from experience to “not get excited too soon”.

“It’s too far away for anyone to be concerned,” he said.

“As we all know, there’s a lot of variables. But I think by Thursday we’ll be taking the big steps to prepare.”

Mayor Bawden said the shire was well-stocked with goods should the storm cut the area off again, after Cyclone Imogen flooded all major roads into the region for a week in early January.

“A category one is no big deal, but we’re hoping … crikey, don’t let them get any bigger.”