Cyclone Kirrily wreaks havoc on Australia Day, Survival Day events in Townsville

Cyclone Kirrily has cast a dark shadow over Townsville’s Australia Day celebrations, with organisers forced to scrap major events as the city hunkers down to weather the storm.

The looming Cyclone Kirrily has cast a dark shadow over Townsville’s Australia Day celebrations, with organisers forced to scrap major events as the city hunkers down to weather the storm.

With safety the top priority, Townsville City Council made the tough decision overnight to cancel several of Friday’s highly anticipated Australia Day events including the Great Australian Bites event with MasterChef Australia finalist Rhiannon Anderson.

The Aussie Fun Run, Free Aussie breakfast and Beach Day Out at The Strand have also been scrapped in the interest of public safety, with the low expected to develop into Cyclone Kirrily forecast to make landfall on Thursday.

Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said at this stage it seemed unlikely the Australia Day flag raising ceremony at Jezzine Barrack would go ahead but more information regarding the city’s citizenship ceremony will be released soon.

The Australia Day fun run in Townsville has been cancelled this year. Pictured is Hailee Huston at the fun run in 2016. Picture: Zak Simmonds

Deputy mayor Mark Molachino said the council considered holding Australia Day events at the Townsville Stadium to protect attendees from the strong winds forecast to hit the city instead of cancelling, but in the end, they didn’t want attendees to be put at risk by travelling on local roads in uncertain conditions.

“It’s going to be very difficult for us if the cyclone is coming through Thursday night to hold an Australia Day event on Friday morning,” he said at Wednesday’s council meeting.

“We don’t then want people out on the roads, and there could be powerlines down or whatever trying to get to an event we can postpone until later for this year.”

He said the council would consider rescheduling the Australia Day events for next week, but it would depend on the aftermath.

“We would like to keep Australia Day on Australia Day; we do it every year,” he said.

“But next year … if there’s no cyclones, we’re back on the 26th.

“We are looking at next week should everything be okay and there’s no legacy issues (where) we’ve got to deal with destruction and stuff.” 

Burdekin Shire Council Mayor Lyn McLaughlin said their Australia Day Awards and ceremony scheduled for Friday had been postponed due to the current weather forecast.

“We are proud of our Australia Day honours and our soon to be new Australians, and we look forward to celebrating them at a later date when the weather conditions improve,” she said.

“Council apologises for any inconvenience this may cause to our award recipients, new citizens and guests.”

Big Eye Theatre, who organise the Survival Day march and festival in Townsville, said they had decided to postpone their annual event set to go ahead at The Strand on Friday to February 17-18.

Survival Day events in Townsville have been postponed to February due to the weather. Pictured are Stephen Sailor (front), Michona Warria, Linda Oliver and Tyra Oliver getting ready to take part in the event in 2018.

“Due to the impending cyclone and advice of all parties, we have decided to postpone our event,” organisers wrote.

More to come.

Originally published as Cyclone Kirrily wreaks havoc on Australia Day, Survival Day events in Townsville