Outridge Monument Print Page

The memorial commemorates the pearlers lost in Bathurst Bay cyclone of the 4th March 1899. At least 307 crew members died from a pearling fleet of over 100 vessels plus other craft (with 152 sunk or wrecked, some found kilometres inland), as a result of a 14.6-metre storm surge.

Over 100 Aboriginals also died in forest country and trying to help shipwrecked men when the back surge swept them into the sea and they drowned. Tonnes of fish and some dolphins were found 15 metres above sea level up to several kilometres inland and rocks were embedded in trees. On Flinders Island dolphins were found 15.2 metres up on the cliffs. On that night of 4 March, Constable J.M.Kenny reported that a 48-foot storm surge swept over their camp at Barrow Point (south of Cape Melville) atop a 12 metre high ridge and reached 5 kilometres inland, the largest storm surge ever recorded.

After crossing Bathurst Bay, Mahina - now generally known as the Bathurst Bay 'Hurricane' - continued on, with diminishing strength but caused considerable flooding, south-west across the peninsula to the south-eastern corner of the Gulf of Carpentaria. There it doubled back on its tracks and 'died' altogether over the land on 10 March.

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