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At Bathurst Bay, near Princess Charlotte Bay (Cape York) on 4 March, at least 307 crew members died from a pearling fleet of over 100 vessels plus other craft (with 152 sunk or wrecked, some found kilometres inland), as a result of a 14.6-metre storm surge associated with TC Mahina.
Over 100 Aboriginals also died in forest country and trying to help shipwrecked men when the back surge swept them into the sea and they drowned. Tonnes of fish and some dolphins were found 15m above sea level up to several kms inland and rocks were embedded in trees. On Flinders Is dolphins were found 15.2m up on the cliffs. On that night of 4 March, Constable J.M.Kenny reported that a 48-foot storm surge swept over their camp at Barrow Point (south of Cape Melville) atop a 40 ft (12m) high ridge & reached 3 miles inland, the largest storm surge ever recorded.
After crossing Bathurst Bay, Mahina - now generally known as the Bathurst Bay 'Hurricane' - continued on, with diminishing strength but caused considerable flooding, south-west across the peninsula to the south-eastern corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria. There it doubled back on its tracks & 'died' altogether over the land on 10 March. |
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