brucehighway

Beatties Hall after cyclone damage Babinda 1918 research

from State Library of Queensland

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  This cyclone was widely regarded as the worst to hit a populated area of Qld. The towns of Babinda, Innisfail, Cairns, Ingham & Cardwell were destroyed. The cyclone swept inland over the Bellenden-Ker Range & the Atherton Tableland. Contemporary reports list 37 dead at Innisfail, and 40-60 aborigines killed nearby. Innisfail (population 3,500) had only 12 houses left intact. At Bingil Bay a surge wave took the creek from the bridge 400 m upstream, and at the Bingil Bay Mission Beach area all structures were destroyed and debris reached a height of 7metres in the trees. It was reported that the cyclone continued for 4 days. Source: www.babindainfocentre.com.au/more-info/cyclones/1918-cycl...

• Vesna Verencevic said:

  In the early hours of Monday morning on January 21, 1918, a category 4 cyclone launched into Mackay carrying violent winds and a 3.6 meter storm surge. There were reports of 2 to 3-metre waves breaking in the main street of the town. Damage was widespread. Of the 1400 houses in Mackay at the time, 1300 were destroyed or significantly damaged. Thirty people lost their lives as a result of the cyclone, most of them in Mackay township. The massive cyclone that all but destroyed Innisfail a couple of months later is considered the worst cyclone ever to hit a populated area in Queensland. The category 5 storm crossed the coast on Sunday evening the 10th of March. Such was the devastation, that only 12 buildings are reported to have remained standing after the cyclone. In the nearby settlements of Mission Beach and Bingil Bay, every single structure was destroyed and massive storm surges and tidal waves were reported. The town of Babinda was also almost completely destroyed. At least 100 people were killed as a result of the cyclone, many of them Aboriginal residents at the Hull River Mission. Source: www.slq.qld.gov.au/blog/deadly-cyclone-season-1918