MP calls for memorial to be built to remember lives lost
WHITSUNDAY MP Jason Costigan marked the 46th anniversary of Cyclone Ada in the Whitsundays in memory of the 14 lives lost.
He would like to see a memorial erected in the Whitsundays or Proserpine.
Cast a wreath today into the waters of Shute Harbour in memory of those 14 poor souls who lost their lives in Cyclone…
Posted by Jason Costigan on Sunday, January 17, 2016
Cyclone Ada crossed the coast on Sunday afternoon, January 17,
1970, leaving a terrible path of death and destruction in its wake. Hayman
and Daydream islands were both badly affected.
The accommodation blocks on Daydream Island were demolished and eventually the extent of the damage was put at $10 million.
What was worse, however, was the loss of life.
Six people were confirmed dead in the Proserpine and Whitsunday regions.
In addition, the 55ft (16.7m) 55 foot concrete trawler Whakatane with the owner Des Ryan, of Burleigh Heads, his wife Del and three children Judy, 9, Wendy, 7 and Tony, 5, skipper Colin Clarke and deckhand W. Howard on board was lost after it left Mackay at 5.30am on Saturday for Townsville.
The Whakatane was never seen again although wreckage believed to be from her was found on the eastern side of Long Island a week later.
The search was abandoned on Monday, January 26.
A well-known Mackay district woman was one of the six people who died as a result of Cyclone Ada.
Mrs Shirley Carmen Turner, 31, of Blenheim Station, west of Eungella, was crushed when an accommodation unit collapsed at South Molle Island during the cyclone early on Sunday, February 18.
I didn’t want to go too deep into this connection now as need to process what if meant but I know that there was a strong link and connection with the name of Shirley having my name, and on research had been her mother’s middle name as well. The name is significant because when I was growing up I knew that it was a very strange name and the only person that I ever recall having the same name so was not commonplace. All I knew is that there was a deep connection that I felt in my soul that all of these serendipitous moments led me to here at this time and I felt an overwhelming physical response and connection and emotion that left me with an internal peace that I have never felt before, literally like a purging of my soul and if nothing more than to accept that the journey had done everything that it had meant to achieve.
