Earthquake - Meckering - October 1968 On 14th October, 1968, Meckering (a small town in Australia) was destroyed by an earthquake. Although that earthquake is of moderate magnitude (6.9 on the Richter scale) but it was produced major damages (largest recorded in the seismic history of Australia) in Meckering and surrounding areas. Twenty people were injured, but no one was dead. The earthquake was felt throughout the southern half of the State and one of the. (1)
Floods - Brisbane - January 1974 The year 1974 has witnessed many disasters started with Cyclone Wanda bringing devastating floods to Brisbane, and ended with Darwin devastated by Cyclone Tracy. On 24 January, Cyclone Wanda came ashore north of the city of Brisbane, preceding…show more content… Despite several warnings, the people of Darwin did not evacuate or prepare for the cyclone and many residents continued with their Christmas festivities. Moreover, because of the small diameter of the cyclone, gale force winds only extended 40km from the storm center, not yet reaching gale force in Darwin on Christmas Eve. Winds accelerated from a breeze to gale force over a short, 5-hour period. The storm caused significant damage, destroying 80% of the buildings in the city. It also claimed 71 lives, injured 650, left 41,000 homeless, and caused more than 35,000 people to evacuate. The total cost of the storm is estimated to have been 837 million Dollars.…show more content… (5) In December of 1974 the city has a total populations of 47,000, while in July 1975 the population decreased by 14000 people bringing the number to 33,000. (5)
The 1982-83 drought The years of 1982-83 witnessed a drought that may have been one of the worst for 100 years in Victoria, New South Wales and southern Queensland. It started in autumn 1982, with severe rainfall deficiencies over eastern Australia exacerbated by frequent sharp frosts in June and July. The upper Murrumbidgee River became a chain of waterholes, reservoirs across the south-east have fallen to unknown levels for many years and the wet season in the northern Australian was failed. (6) In February 1983, dust-storms and devastating fires swept the southeastern States, then heavy rain in late March broke the drought. The loss caused by this drought excess of three billion Dollars. (6)
Dust storm - Melbourne - February 1983 On Tuesday afternoon, 8th February 1983, the dust storm has rolled over Melbourne. The height of the cloud was over 300 meters and 500 kilometers long, composed of thousands of tons of topsoil. The dust storm cut visibility to 100 meters, creating near darkness for almost an hour.
