It was 5th January 1992, my birthday. Our van was parked on the hill at the camp on the Great Fingal mine site at Day Dawn ( 7 Kms south of Cue). At about 2-30 pm with a can of beer in my hand I stepped out of the annex and was greeted by a rather scary site. The entire southern sky from east to west was a monstrous dust cloud from the ground to the top of the sky. I called to Val (wifey) to come and have a look. We stood there for about a minute and the gentle breeze suddenly turned into a roaring wind and we could see the dust cloud was getting closer. I said we had better get back inside. Ten seconds after stepping back inside the annex it happened. With an enormous noise the annex seemed to explode and flew upwards with poles flying everywhere, cupboards flipping over and annex poles and gear going everywhere. My can and Vals wine glass got sucked up out of our hands never to be seen again. Canvas, steel poles and pegs etc flew everywhere around us and the caravan. The pantry cupboard tipped over and knocked the fridge over leaving a mess of corn flakes, pickled onions and cooking oil etc, etc spread over the annex floor. The caravan was pushed off the jacks and we werent sure what was coming next, so we werent very keen about going back into the caravan. We slowly walked at about a 45 degree angle into the wind and stood on the safe side of the other dongers and buildings. Women are lucky because they can cry when things go wrong, but the blokes have to keep a clear head. We then drove into Cue and found our son Robert who was at the local with half a dozen mates. In a very short amount of time they all jumped into a Ute and drove out to our van. They told Val and I that, the best way we could help was go into the dongers and leave it to them. Which we did. They had all the annex dismantled and folded and the annex pad clear in about an hour while the wind was screaming around them. The wind continued non stop till about 5pm that day and at Meekatharra (120 km north) they recorded 125 Kph winds at the airport. Amazingly neither of us received a scratch. About 6 weeks later I was detecting about 2 kilometres away on the side of a hill and came across one of Vals yellow plastic canisters.
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Just to explain things we were there as caretakers of The Great Fingal mine site. It was operational during the 1930s and mainly manned by Italians who I believe were locked up during the War. We were caretaking the more modern Heap Leach operations, which was a good deal with free food deliveries every week and free fuel and Caravan parking. It filled in a 6 months gap between jobs.
-- Edited by Young Simmo on Wednesday 16th of September 2015 08:36:36 PM
Interesting story. I've often wondered what actually happened to belongings when hit by a dust storm. The only time I was in the middle of one, I was safely tucked up in a cabin in a caravan park at Goondiwindi. Stayed an extra day till I felt it was safe to venture out again.
Felicia said
06:41 PM Sep 16, 2015
Must have been very scary. We were at Mildura once, OH was going to play golf, called him back as I had looked at the sky. Big dust storm but fortunately the winds weren't too bad, and I have lived on the Hay plains. Staying at Wangarata one time and there was a tornado warning, OH said it wouldn't happen. Got bad winds but we were lucky to be out of the area where it actually hit, could have hit anywhere. Lots of damage but nobody was hurt.
Lynda
Felicia said
06:45 PM Sep 16, 2015
Sorry 4 people were seriously hurt, 6 towns were hit including Rutherglen. It was in 2013.
Lynda
Desert Dweller said
05:31 AM Sep 17, 2015
Felicia wrote:
Sorry 4 people were seriously hurt, 6 towns were hit including Rutherglen. It was in 2013.
Lynda
They still haven't found the petrol bowser that blew away that day! True! Flipped a motor home upside down too! Every gum tree was stripped bare of leaves, an amazing sight!
shekon said
12:28 PM Sep 17, 2015
I remember that day vividly. It was my first free camping experience on my own. I had hired a MH, to see if I really wanted to do it , and if I could handle it on my own. I did and guess where I free camped??? Greens Lake. I remember waking up and hearing the wind howling and looking outside to see the couple of caravans that were parked further up trying to get their awnings in. I went back to bed, slept soundly and woke up in the morning to the news of the devastation that had taken place a little further north.
It was 5th January 1992, my birthday. Our van was parked on the hill at the camp on the Great Fingal mine site at Day Dawn ( 7 Kms south of Cue). At about 2-30 pm with a can of beer in my hand I stepped out of the annex and was greeted by a rather scary site. The entire southern sky from east to west was a monstrous dust cloud from the ground to the top of the sky. I called to Val (wifey) to come and have a look. We stood there for about a minute and the gentle breeze suddenly turned into a roaring wind and we could see the dust cloud was getting closer. I said we had better get back inside. Ten seconds after stepping back inside the annex it happened. With an enormous noise the annex seemed to explode and flew upwards with poles flying everywhere, cupboards flipping over and annex poles and gear going everywhere. My can and Vals wine glass got sucked up out of our hands never to be seen again. Canvas, steel poles and pegs etc flew everywhere around us and the caravan. The pantry cupboard tipped over and knocked the fridge over leaving a mess of corn flakes, pickled onions and cooking oil etc, etc spread over the annex floor. The caravan was pushed off the jacks and we werent sure what was coming next, so we werent very keen about going back into the caravan. We slowly walked at about a 45 degree angle into the wind and stood on the safe side of the other dongers and buildings. Women are lucky because they can cry when things go wrong, but the blokes have to keep a clear head. We then drove into Cue and found our son Robert who was at the local with half a dozen mates. In a very short amount of time they all jumped into a Ute and drove out to our van. They told Val and I that, the best way we could help was go into the dongers and leave it to them. Which we did. They had all the annex dismantled and folded and the annex pad clear in about an hour while the wind was screaming around them. The wind continued non stop till about 5pm that day and at Meekatharra (120 km north) they recorded 125 Kph winds at the airport. Amazingly neither of us received a scratch. About 6 weeks later I was detecting about 2 kilometres away on the side of a hill and came across one of Vals yellow plastic canisters.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Just to explain things we were there as caretakers of The Great Fingal mine site. It was operational during the 1930s and mainly manned by Italians who I believe were locked up during the War. We were caretaking the more modern Heap Leach operations, which was a good deal with free food deliveries every week and free fuel and Caravan parking. It filled in a 6 months gap between jobs.
-- Edited by Young Simmo on Wednesday 16th of September 2015 08:36:36 PM
Lynda
Lynda
They still haven't found the petrol bowser that blew away that day! True! Flipped a motor home upside down too! Every gum tree was stripped bare of leaves, an amazing sight!