TORNADOES TEAR THROUGH NORTHERN QUEENSLAND - OCTOBER 29

A tornado struck the town of Silver Valley, SSW of Burdeken, during Sunday morning.  Damage includes several houses severely damaged and one house nearly destroyed, an area of forest with it's trees stripped of leaves, cars damaged by falling trees and a small plane blown 30m from it's original position.  Winds were estimated at 200km/h.

Another town near Silver Valley was also struck by a Tornado the previous day.  The following article appeared in the Cairns Post.  Thanks to Desley Absolon for typing this up.

Tornado wrecks rural home
by Lea Blakesley

A silver Valley couple yesterday said they feared for their lives as a ferocious mini-tornado ripped through their home.

The rare weather event hit the isolated small community, west of Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tableland, at about 5pm Saturday, wreaking a path of destruction in about five minutes. Hank Peeters and Sandra Brown bore the brunt of the 200km/hr-plus winds which destroyed an outhouse, comprising two bedrooms and a storeroom, and ripped off the roof of the main part of their fibro home, which was flooded with more than 12cm of water.

The couple, who had farewelled visitors just before the tornado hit, were forced to spend the night in nearby Innot Hot springs before returning to their home on Sunday. Neighbours reported some minor structural damage while vegetation along the road also was damaged. Hank and Sandra said they watched for 30 minutes as the tornado, initially thought to be a storm, approached. "We are used to storms here but we never anticipated it was going to be as severe as it was," said Mr. Peeters, who had never seen anything like it in his 18 years in the valley.  "I remember thinking the house was going to go".

The couple was dumbfounded and shocked when they saw the devastation after the storm had passed.  Roofing iron and firbreglass were strewn more than 200metres away from the house, with some sheets pierced through and wrapped around trees. Trees, demarked and stripped of their leaves, were uprooted and twisted while thick, timber pickets were embedded in the ground.

"We'd had some good wind before, the type you get from a storm but this was completely unexpected." Ms. Brown said.

SES disaster operations officer Bob McZLagan, who was among the helpers, said the hail was phenomenal. "It was one foot deep in some places" he said. "I have never seen the explosive type damage before."

Cairns Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Mike Marrinan said mini-tornadoes - which develop at the base of severe thunderstorms - were reasonably rare in the tropics.  Mr. Marrinan said a typical tornado would have wind speeds of more than 200 km/h.