A tropical low developed near New Caledonia and moved past Brisbane and brought storm force southerly winds to waters off the Gold Coast.

A storm surge brought some flooding up the Brisbane River at Newstead and a storm surge 0f 0.59m was measured at The Gold Coast Seaway.

The luxury vessel Queen Elizabeth II, travelling from Brisbane to Sydney, was battered by average winds of 26 ms-1 and very short and very steep 10 metre waves just off the northern New South Wales coastal town of Yamba around 1900 UTC 15 February 1996 resulting in injuries to passengers. The Brisbane wave recording station recorded significant wave heights to 6.19 m on the 15th.

This event is classified as an East Coast Low.

More about East Coast Lows

Harden Up
Bureau of Meteorology
The Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research report