36 



THE BOWEN CYCLONE. 



wind, the path of the storm's centre. By these aids you will per- 

 ceive that it (the storm centre) passed inland from the sea 

 in a direction nearly due west. 



For some days previously a northerly wind had been blowing 

 along the coast, changing during the night of the 26th and early 

 morning of 27th to S., and so to S.E. during the 27th, 28th, 29th, 

 and 30th, increasing in force to a gale, with very dirty weather. 

 The northerly wind reasserted itself on the 30th. 



The first shift of wind noted is from the log of the " Pearl," 

 Queensland Government schooner, off Hook Island ; — " Mid- 

 night, wind veering from S.E. to N.N.E. Hurricane." Between 

 6.30 and 9.30 a.m. the centre passed to the north of Bowen, the 

 wind at that place shifting from S.E. to E. at the latter time, and 

 blowing furiously. Continuing its westward course, the centre 

 passed to the south of Cape Upstart between noon and i p.m. The 

 "Catherine Jane" had been beached in Upstart Bay early in the 

 morning. Winds. W.; heavy gale. Captain French says: — "At 12.30 

 p.m. for twenty minutes there was a flat calm, then suddenly the 

 wind sprang up from the opposite side of the compass, and blew 

 stronger than ever." 



The Ayr reports give wind directions as — 8 a.m. W.; 2 p.m. 

 N.W. ; 4 p.m. N. Finally, at 9 p.m., the cyclone had dissipated 

 itself over the country to the west of Ravenswood. 



I append an account of the storm as felt at Poole Island in 

 Edgecombe Bay, and extracts from other public and private 

 sources serving to show its exceptional severity. With regard to 

 Mr. Christison's account of the course of events at Poole Island, 

 his experience is exceptionally interesting, inasmuch as he shows a 

 further veering of the wind from N.E. to a point west of north. 

 The same fact shows in the Dent Island report, a light station on 

 the coast about forty miles W.S.W. of Poole Island. This can be 

 accounted for by what we may term a subsidiary depression 

 on the outer edge of the main one. The barometer gave 

 very little warning at Bowen of the coming storm. It had 

 been falling gradually during the early morning, but not until the 

 centre was nearly due north of that town did the mercury fall 

 rapidly, and then ic fell ■25in. in an hour. I am unable, for various 

 reasons, to give readings useful for comparison from other stations. 

 At Cape Upstart, a little to the north of centre, readings are 

 taken at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. At 9 a.m. the centre was to the east, 

 and at 3 p.m. to the west of the station, thus the minimum reading 

 about noon is not registered. At Cape Cleveland the same. 

 At Townsviile the official record shows no trace of the passage 



