Cooloola, Fraser coast’s apocalyptic cloud sends imaginations spiralling

Giant spaceship? The end of the world? Nuclear war? A spectacular mushroom cloud off the Queensland coast has intrigued nephophiles and left more than a few speculating as to its origins.

Photo of the "mushroom cloud" appearing over Cooloola / Fraser Coast on March 16, 2023.

A strange sight appeared over Cooloola Coast on Thursday evening around sunset, which could be seen all the way south to Maroochydore.

The spectacular cloud formation left its audience questioning what this strange appearance was and what it could mean?

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“I thought a nuclear bomb had dropped over Tin Can Bay,” said Ivan Schindler, who observed it driving north up the Bruce Highway.

On closer observation the cloud formation with a flat thin top swirling into a centre of thicker cloud, and the sun hitting it on an angle that directly reflected its light, gave the illusion there was a fire or an explosion in the centre.

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Photo of the "mushroom cloud" appearing over Cooloola / Fraser Coast on March 16, 2023. Picture: Facebook user Don Collins

Photos posted by Facebook user Don Collins, on What’s Going On? Cooloola Cove, Tin Can Bay, Gympie, community provoked plenty of discussion from group members.

“It’s aliens,” Aaron Nolan said.

That’s spooky,” said Yvonne Gypsy Dalliston, another member.

Many users were in respectful awe of nature’s spectacle, enjoying the slight visual reprieve in the middle of a early autumn heatwave.

The cloud was not, however, a signifier of the Biblical apocalypse, the Second Coming, Hadesn or aliens. Nor was it an atomic bomb, confirmed a spokesperson at the Bureau of Meteorology.

Rather it was “just a normal thunderstorm cloud, or cumulonimbus; it obviously looks really good because it is isolated, you can see the full thing, and the sunset lights it up,” they said.

Photo of the "mushroom cloud" appearing over Cooloola / Fraser Coast on March 16, 2023 at Carlo Point. Picture: Facebook user Susan Sinclair.

Originally published as Cooloola, Fraser coast’s apocalyptic cloud sends imaginations spiralling