Chapter 4 : tropical cyclone risks

There is little doubt that tropical cyclones (TC) pose a significant threat to the urban communities of South-East Queensland. These spectacular meteorological phenomena are very large in scale, and have the potential to bring severe loss to the whole region. On long-term average, 1.2 cyclones pass within 500 km of Brisbane each year. The most active cyclone season on record (1962/1963) saw 7 cyclones passing into the region. In the past 92 years of detailed record, the centres of 15 of these storms have passed within 100 km of downtown Brisbane. An historical inventory of cyclones effecting the region is included in Appendix D, based largely on a listing of historical events compiled from many sources by the Bureau of Meteorology’s Queensland Regional Office in Brisbane.