MAHINA – AUSTRALIA’S DEADLIEST CYCLONE: 1899
MORE THAN 300 people died when Tropical Cyclone Mahina slammed into the north Queensland coast on 4 March 1899, making it Australia’s deadliest cyclone ever. Most victims were divers and seamen working on the Thursday Island pearling fleet.
Queensland’s lucrative pearling industry began after commercial quantities of pearl oysters were discovered in the Torres Strait in 1869. Pearl oyster shell was prized in the late 19th
