Fiona was a continuation of Gertie which crossed the east coast and Peninsula and entered the SE Gulf. It looped back and crossed the coast at the Nassua River mouth while rapidly intensifying.

From the extensive defoliation and damage to the few buildings there, it was most likely accompanied by hurricane force winds. From satellite imagery before landfall the cyclone had a very clear well shaped eye with a small bright convective ring surrounding it and a bright overcast cloud canopy surrounding this three latitude degrees in diameter.

An outstation of Inkerman Station is located at the Nassua River mouth and a brief calm was noted at 0930 UTC preceded by ESE winds and followed by WNW winds. Damaging winds lasted about 2 hours and flattened timber and demolished buildings. About 50% of the trees were left standing and these were damaged, some stripped of bark. The wharf was destroyed and 4 four 55,000 litre fuel tanks lifted and scattered up to a mile away. Forty four gallon drums were scattered widely like confetti. The caretaker of the outstation observed A tidal wave was seen to come up from the mouth of the Nassua River and split at Cattle Creek. The wave came over the flats and washed away 3m high walls. It was 4.6m high and travelled inland approximately 2km.

At Edward River Mission the sea washed out a road on one of the sand ridges 2.7m above sea level. At Aurukun a tidal surge of 0.9m was observed in the river about 5 miles from the Gulf. Fiona tracked from the Gulf and entered the Coral Sea near Rockhampton. Flooding in the Burdekin and Fitzroy Basins varied from minor to major with severe damage to infrastructure. Motorists were cut off for days. A house was destroyed by a tornado near Sarina with trees down. Paw Paw crops were lost near Gladstone by wind and rain effects. A 0.6m to 0.9m storm surge was observed at Gladstone and Bundaberg respectively.

Rockhampton Regional Council in partnership with the Queensland a…