Summary
Tropical cyclone Trixie was the seventh cyclone of the 1974/75 season to operate in the Northwestern Australian Region and at the time it was considered to be one of the most intense tropical cyclones recorded on the Australian coast.. It was the first cyclone of the season to affect the West Australian coast but the various communities were apparently well prepared for it by the publicity given to Tracy .
Trixie developed on 16 February in a low pressure system which had persisted over the Kimberley from early in the month. By 12 February atmospheric pressure readings in the system were below 1000 hPa and the cyclone formed when the centre of the circulation moved off the Kimberley coast. Subsequently Trixie travelled along a path of over 2200 km long which crossed the West Australian coast just east of Onslow. It was estimated that Trixie reached a minimum sea level pressure of about 925 hPa on 19th February. The wind gust of 246 km/h at Onslow is the highest recorded on an anemograph in Australia.
There was no direct loss of life attributable to Trixie and for the pastoral areas of the Kimberley, De Grey, Fortescue, West and Southeast Gascoyne's and Northeastern Goldfields it was a beneficial cyclone. However there were losses exceeding $5 million to costal towns and installations, to station properties due to the winds and the whole State economy from the subsequent flooding which eventually cut the Trans-Australian railway line at Zanthus - some 1700 km from the point of landfall.
For more details see the TC Trixie Report (pdf).
Track and intensity
