Cyclone Barry made landfall around 1100 UTC 5 January 1996 between the mouths of the Staaten and Gilbert Rivers, a stretch of coastline that is sparsely inhabited. The eye of the cyclone was clearly visible on by combining data from weather watch radars located on Mornington Island and at Weipa.

The eye of the cyclone passed directly over a professional fishermans camp, said to be about 4 metres above high water mark, and it was wrecked by wind and storm surge. A field survey by helicopter indicated the occurrence of a storm surge which travelled up to 7 km inland, after topping the frontal dunes, in an area near and south of the Staatan River mouth.

It was assessed as being a storm surge of at least 4 metres. Barry tracked from the Gulf through Central Qld. A surface trough extended from the centre to the east coast and was associated with wind gusts to 70 knots as it moved down the coast from Sarina to Hervey Bay. This resulted in pockets of structural and tree damage along this part of the coast along with tides of up to a metre above normal.

The map at the top left displays the impact area (marked by the black line) with the red line illustrating the path of the eye of the cyclone.

Rockhampton Regional Council in partnership with the Queensland a…

Cyclone Barry track and intensity (BOM)