BEVERLEY

History

Severe Tropical Cyclone Beverley was one of the more destructive systems to affect Western Australia's north-west coast during the 1974–75 season, striking the Exmouth region at severe intensity in late February 1975.

The system began as an active monsoon low over the Timor Sea, north of the Kimberley, on 22 February 1975. Tracking south-westward across warm waters, it steadily organised and was classified as a tropical cyclone on 23 February, receiving the name Beverley from the Bureau of Meteorology's Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre in Perth. For several days it ran roughly parallel to the Kimberley and Pilbara coastlines, remaining offshore while slowly strengthening.

A mid-latitude upper trough approaching from the west eroded the ridge steering the system, and Beverley turned onto a southerly heading toward the West Australian coast. It then deepened quickly, reaching Category 3 severe tropical cyclone intensity with a minimum central pressure near 960 hPa. Maximum sustained winds are estimated at about 130–140 km/h (70–75 knots), with gusts in excess of 185 km/h near the centre and at exposed coastal sites. Beverley was at or near this peak when it crossed the Pilbara coast in the vicinity of Exmouth and Learmonth on 27 February.

Once inland, the cyclone moved across the Gascoyne and Goldfields districts, where friction over land and the ingestion of dry continental air caused rapid weakening. Beverley was downgraded to a broad tropical rain depression on 2 March and dissipated over the inland desert the following day.

The destructive core passed over Exmouth and the nearby Harold E. Holt Naval Communication Station, where severe gusts tore roofs from houses, demolished outbuildings, brought down power lines and damaged communication towers. The Learmonth Meteorological Office recorded extreme gusts before its equipment failed. Heavy rainfall from the system's monsoonal bands produced river rises and flash flooding through the Gascoyne and inland pastoral districts, washing out roads, isolating station homesteads and stranding stock. Offshore, high-seas warnings across the North West Shelf forced oil and gas operations and shipping to take heavy-weather precautions. No lives were lost, but structural and infrastructure damage was extensive.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia