Bathurst Bay
Located east of Princess Charlotte Bay and north of Cape Melville National Park and the localities of Lakefield and Starcke in Cook Shire — Mutumui and Walmbaria Country — Bathurst Bay was a 19th-century base for the Northern pearling fleet.
Around a thousand men, women and children aboard eight schooners and more than one hundred luggers anchored in the Princess Charlotte Bay and Bathurst Bay area were in the process of offloading pearl shells when Cyclone Mahina passed through the area on 4 March 1899.
More than half of the fleet was destroyed, and at least 307 people were killed in huge seas and the highest recorded storm surge produced by a cyclone. Constable John Kenny and four Queensland Native Mounted Police troopers were camped near Ninian Bay, about 12 metres) above sea level and about 800 metres) inland when they were inundated by waist-deep sea water.
Sources:
National Museum of Australia: Defining Mments: Cyclone Mahina: https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/cyclone-mahina
Wikipedia: Bathurst Bay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathurst_Bay
