TRIXIE

History

Severe Tropical Cyclone Trixie developed from a persistent low pressure system over the Kimberley region of Western Australia in early February 1975, officially becoming a tropical cyclone on 16 February when its centre moved off the coast into King Sound, north of Derby. The system then tracked southwest over the Indian Ocean, intensifying into a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone with a minimum central pressure of 925 hPa and maximum sustained winds of 215 km/h. On 19 February 1975, Trixie crossed the Western Australian coast just east of Onslow, passing directly over the Mardie pastoral station on the Pilbara coast.

The storm produced extraordinary wind gusts, with the anemometer at Mardie recording 259 km/h — the second-highest gust ever recorded on the Australian mainland, and one that reached the instrument's measurement limit, suggesting actual winds may have been even stronger. At Onslow, a gust of 246–247 km/h was recorded before that station's anemometer was destroyed. Significant structural damage occurred across the Pilbara, including unroofed homes in Onslow and an estimated $900,000 in damage at Dampier. Onslow also received 246 mm of rainfall in a single day. Despite Trixie's exceptional intensity, no lives were lost, an outcome attributed in part to heightened community awareness following Cyclone Tracy's devastating impact on Darwin just two months earlier.

Sources: Bureau of Meteorology report Wikipedia