A CYCLONIC STOEM OR TORNADO IN THE GWYDIR DISTRICT. 59 



pressure occupied Central Queensland, extending as far south as 

 Thargomindah. By the morning of the 24th barometers had risen 

 two to three-tenths in South Australia, and the isobars had closed 

 up rather on the coast of New South Wales, while the tongue of 

 Equatorial low pressure had moved to the eastward. At 4 o'clock 

 on that day a violent storm approached Yetman from the Queens- 

 land border, with thunder, lightning, and most violent wind, 

 near the town growing trees with two feet of solid wood were 

 twisted off short by it. At Coolatee, thirty miles south of Yet- 

 man, large growing trees, three and some even four feet in 

 diameter were broken off short within four feet of the ground, and 

 it was evident that the storm was gathering strength on its course, 

 and in this part it only lasted ten minutes ; yet it cut a track like 

 a cleared road through the forest three hundred yards wide. At 

 Piedmont twenty miles south of Bingara the storm track, still 

 clearly cut through the forest, was expanded to three-quarters of 

 a mile wide. It was close to this point that the photographs were 

 taken, although subsequently it was found that the force of the 

 gale had been still greater on a hill near. The storm arrived at 

 Cobbedah at about 6*30 p.m., and therefore it seems to have 

 travelled from Yetman to Cobbedah or almost in a straight line 

 southwards, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles in 

 two and a-half hours ; or at a rate of progress of fifty miles per 

 hour. The southern part of its track was marked by the most 

 violent effects. Altogether the storm was traced one hundred 

 and seventy-five miles, or from Goondiwindi on the Queensland 

 border to Cobbedah, and probably went much further before its 

 fury was spent. 



It is not always possible to find a photographer in the bush where 

 you want him, and Mr. Lawson had to drive one twenty-five 

 miles to obtain the photographs of this storm which I now exhibit, 

 they were taken not where the largest trees were broken off, but 

 near Piedmont about twelve miles north of Cobbedah. At this 

 point it will be seen, that the tops were taken off all the trees in 

 the path of the storm ; and as far as one could see, there was 



