Back-to-Back Cyclones Batter Remote Australian Communities, Raising Fears of a Fierce Season

Cyclones hit far-flung communities weeks apart

On Western Australia’s Dampier Peninsula, the wind arrived first as a roar, then as a tearing. By late afternoon on Dec. 30, roofing iron was peeling back and trees were snapping around the Aboriginal communities of Djarindjin and Lombadina as Severe Tropical Cyclone Hayley came ashore.

“It was a pretty wild ride,” Nathan McIvor, chief executive of the Djarindjin Aboriginal Corporation, said. “We’ve got trees down, powerlines down, water coming through walls and roofing iron lifting.”

A week later — and more than 2,000 kilometers to the northwest — residents of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands were boarding up windows for the second time in a fortnight. A system the Bureau of Meteorology had expected to remain a tropical low intensified quickly into Tropical Cyclone Jenna on Jan. 5, passing dangerously close to the tiny Indian Ocean territory.

The two storms, affecting some of the most remote communities under the Australian flag, have become early markers of a cyclone season forecasters say is unusually active and intense.

Hayley: Rapid strengthening, damaging winds on the Dampier Peninsula

Hayley formed from a tropical low off the north‑west coast in late December and strengthened rapidly over very warm seas. By the morning of Dec. 30, the system had peaked as a Category 4 cyclone over water, with estimated 10‑minute sustained winds of about 165 kilometers per hour and gusts near 230 kph.

Around 5 p.m. Australian Western Standard Time that day, Hayley crossed the coast near the northern tip of the Dampier Peninsula, close to Cape Leveque, Djarindjin and Lombadina. Meteorological instruments at Lombadina Airstrip registered a peak gust of 158 kph shortly after landfall. The Bureau said the cyclone was a Category 3 system as it moved over the coast, weakening rapidly as it tracked inland across the Kimberley.

Rainfall in the landfall zone was heavy but localized. Lombadina recorded more than 130 millimeters in 24 hours, while Broome to the south received about 40 millimeters and Derby just 5 millimeters over the same period.

The wind and rain were enough to cause significant disruption in communities scattered along the peninsula, where roads are sparse and many houses are older or only partially upgraded to modern cyclone standards.

“We’ve seen water coming into properties through the walls and ceilings, and we’ve had some roofing sheeting lifting off,” McIvor said. “It’s damage we can fix, but it keeps happening every time a big system comes through.”

Western Australia’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services escalated its warnings during the day as Hayley approached, telling residents from north of Broome to Cape Leveque that it would soon be too late to move.

Acting Kimberley Superintendent Todd Pender urged people in caravans and older homes to relocate while conditions still allowed.

“We don’t want people on the road at the last minute,” he said. “Once those destructive winds get here, debris has the propensity to pick up and fly around the community.”

The main road linking Broome with the peninsula, the Broome–Cape Leveque Road, was closed during and after the cyclone because of fallen trees and powerlines, temporarily cutting off communities from the regional center that supplies fuel, food and medical services.

The Dampier Peninsula is also home to pearling and tourism businesses that rely on calm seas during the holiday season. Ahead of landfall, Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm managing director James Brown said he was “feeling pretty anxious” as the cyclone’s forecast track put extensive on‑water infrastructure at risk.

While Hayley did not cause large‑scale destruction or loss of life, it added to what locals describe as repeated, grinding impacts from severe weather.

“Every couple of years we’re patching up roofs, fixing leaks, trying to keep the mold out,” McIvor said. “The houses out here were never really built for this many big cyclones.”

Cocos (Keeling) Islands: Two cyclones in two weeks

Far out in the eastern Indian Ocean, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands faced a different stress: back‑to‑back blows.

The Australian external territory — a ring of 27 low‑lying coral islands, only two of them inhabited, home to about 600 people — sits more than 1,000 kilometers from the mainland. It depends on a single runway, a small harbor and a lagoon that anchors a niche tourism industry.

On Christmas Day, Tropical Cyclone Grant, a Category 1 to 2 system, passed just north of the atoll, bringing gusts near 100 kph, uprooted trees and early flooding. Islanders boarded up homes and sheltered in cyclone‑rated buildings as the system moved past.

“Usually after a cyclone or tropical low we get three to six weeks of settled weather,” said Dieter Gerhard, chair of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Tourism Association. “This time, Mother Nature has doubled it and given us a bonus one.”

On Jan. 5, a tropical low east of Cocos intensified into Cyclone Jenna just as it neared the islands, contrary to earlier expectations it would remain weaker. The cyclone strengthened to Category 1 as it passed to the east, bringing gale‑force winds and gusts up to 91 kph, and was upgraded to Category 2 later that evening as it moved away to the southwest.

Rainfall from Jenna itself was relatively light — around 7 millimeters in the 24 hours to late morning on Jan. 6 — but the storm arrived on already saturated ground. Residents reported minor flooding, leaking roofs and fallen banana trees and other vegetation.

The lagoon and airport were closed during the worst of the weather, disrupting flights at the tail end of the Christmas–New Year tourism peak. Both reopened the following day, and no major structural damage or injuries were reported.

Even so, the second cyclone in two weeks has weighed on the community.

“It’s a bit of cyclone fatigue,” Gerhard said. “You’re putting up shutters, tying everything down, cleaning up, then doing it all again. And in the back of your mind you’re thinking, what if the next one is bigger?”

Local business operators have called for improvements to drainage and sandbagging around vulnerable properties, warning that a stronger cyclone striking closer to the islands could overwhelm low‑lying areas.

Forecasting challenges and a season off to a severe start

The rapid changes in Jenna’s strength highlighted a growing challenge for forecasters and emergency planners: storms that intensify faster than models predict.

In early advisories, the Bureau of Meteorology expected the low east of Cocos to pass by as a tropical low, with hazardous seas but limited wind impacts. Instead, conditions proved more favorable than anticipated, allowing the system to cross the cyclone threshold near the islands.

Similar dynamics were at play off the Kimberley, where Hayley’s quick jump to Category 4 intensity over open water left limited time for last‑minute changes to preparedness plans along the coast.

Scientists caution that no single cyclone can be directly attributed to climate change, but research by the bureau and other agencies points to a likely trend of fewer tropical cyclones overall in the Australian region — with a higher proportion of the most intense Category 4 and 5 storms and heavier rainfall in those that do form.

By Jan. 5, the bureau had already recorded three Category 4 tropical cyclones in the Australian region this season, including Hayley — the highest number of such severe systems so early in the season since reliable records began in 1980–81.

Insurance backstop activated as communities focus on resilience

The early spate of storms is also testing the federal government’s financial safety net for cyclone‑prone communities.

On Jan. 6, the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation declared Tropical Cyclone Jenna a “declared cyclone event” under the Terrorism and Cyclone Insurance Act 2003. That designation, based on bureau advice that Jenna began at 4 p.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time on Jan. 5, activates the Cyclone Reinsurance Pool for eligible insurers.

The pool is designed to keep home, small‑business and strata premiums more affordable in high‑risk regions by allowing insurers to reinsure cyclone losses with a government‑backed entity. Declarations like Jenna’s determine which claims for physical damage, cleanup and business interruption can be passed into the pool.

For communities on the Dampier Peninsula and Cocos, the more immediate questions are about physical resilience rather than insurance mechanics: whether housing stock, roads, drainage and shelters are up to the job as severe weather patterns shift.

On Cocos, Gerhard said residents accept that cyclones are a fact of life on a tropical atoll, but want practical upgrades to infrastructure.

“We can live with the wind,” he said. “What worries us is the water — the flooding, the sea level, the waves coming over. We need to make sure the island is prepared for when, not if, we get a really serious one.”

In Djarindjin, McIvor said Hayley showed again how even a relatively small number of damaged roofs and flooded homes can strain a remote community already managing overcrowded and aging housing.

“People here are resilient. We get on with the cleanup,” he said. “But every time a cyclone comes through, it reminds us how far we are from the big towns and how important it is to have houses and services that can stand up to what’s coming.”