Harsh lessons of history
NORTH Queensland is far from a stranger to the damage, destruction and heartbreak that cyclones cause.
Taking a look back at five of the most devastating names to ever cross our coast offers a stark and sobering reminder never to be complacent. Cyclone Mahina On March 4, 1899, the souls of more than 400 people were lost during Cyclone Mahina.
The worst cyclone in Australian history, the Category 5 system smashed into the coast at Princess Charlotte Bay north of Cooktown.
In an effort to shelter from the incoming storm, the entire North Queensland pearling fleet had moored in the bay, only to find themselves in the direct line of fire. According to reports, all but one ship sank and 307 men from the fleet were killed. The death toll rose even higher when a nine-metre tidal surge hit the shore with such force that the bodies of dead porpoises were reportedly washed up on the clifftops. Cyclone Althea Severe Tropical Cyclone Althea is arguably the most intense cyclone ever to strike Townsville.
The Category 4 system made landfall at Rollingstone on Christmas Eve in 1971, generating wind gusts that reached as high as 215km/h, tearing through the city and suburbs of Townsville and leaving Magnetic Island in ruins.
Three people lost their lives, with thousands of Townsville homes damaged and destroyed, prompting the Queensland government to change the laws to improve building codes.
Townsville became the first city to adopt the new building codes, laying a foundation for a new standard in housing construction in Queensland. Cyclone Larry Although Cyclone Larry was only 200km in diameter, it tore a path of destruction that damaged up to 10,000 homes and farms and clocked up a bill of $1.5 billion, making it Australia’s costliest cyclone to that point.
Crossing the coast near Innisfail on March 20, 2006, as a Category 4 system, Larry packed winds of up to 240km/h and decimated the country’s banana crops.
Miraculously, no lives were lost and no serious injuries were reported. Cyclone Yasi As opposed to the small, pent-up ball of fury that was Cyclone Larry, Tropical Cyclone Yasi was a behemoth of a storm that barrelled straight into the Queensland coast near Mission Beach on February 3, 2011.
The immense Category 5 system spanned an area from Cairns to Ingham when it made landfall, packing wind gusts of up to 285km/h. The storm destroyed island resorts, levelled houses throughout several coastal towns, tore through crops and continued to cause havoc until it finally weakened to a tropical low. By then, the storm had pushed so far inland it had almost reached Mt Isa. Cyclone Debbie Severe Tropical Cyclone Debbie made landfall near Airlie Beach on March 28, 2017, as a Category 4 system.
The cyclone devastated the islands of the Whitsundays, including Hamilton and Daydream, as well as causing widespread damage throughout Airlie Beach, Proserpine and Bowen.
However, it was Debbie’s continuing path of destruction that made her such a formidable force, causing heavy rainfall and flooding all the way down through the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and Lismore in northern New South Wales.
In the end, Cyclone Debbie was responsible for a total of 14 deaths stretching from the Whitsundays to the Tweed River, with a damage bill of almost $2.5 billion.