On Today's Date: Australia’s Deadliest Cyclone

Cyclone Mahina, the deadliest tropical cyclone in Australia’s recorded history, hit the northeast part of the country on today’s date 125 years ago, taking around 400 lives. The storm made landfall near Bathhurst Bay in northeast Australia, the home anchorage for the pearling fleet, which farmed the Great Barrier Reef for gems. Some 400 people passed away in the storm, including around 300 on vessels in the Bay and about 100 Aboriginal Australians on land.

According to weather historian Christopher Burt, a storm surge of 42 feet is said to have inundated Bathurst Bay. This would be perhaps the highest tropical storm surge on record for Earth, but Burt notes that there are doubts concerning the reliability of the observation. Recent scholarship suggests that the actual storm surge was more likely between 10-16.5 feet.

Mahina was given its name by Clement Wragge, Chief of Queensland's weather bureau. A few years prior, Wragge, had begun the practice of naming tropical cyclones near Australia with women’s names. This custom later influenced the use of women's names for Atlantic hurricanes when it started in 1953. Male and female names weren't used for Atlantic hurricanes until 1979.