About the Moama Tornado:
Like much of Australia, 2010/11 will go down as
“extreme” years in the Echuca/Moama area. 2010 started
with the locality in severe drought and by the middle of 2011, the
area had recorded three floods as well as plagues of locusts,
crickets, spiders, millipedes and mice. But arguably the most
“extreme” event of all involved a small tornado that
formed on the afternoon of Tuesday the 10th of August
2010.
Unlike other locations in the world, tornadoes are an extremely
rare event for Echuca/Moama. The appearance of the tornado was
preceded by an intense hailstorm that left the streets of Echuca
white with hail. About 4.30pm a small tornado was observed on the
northern outskirts of Moama. It moved in a south-westerly
direction, crossing the Cobb Highway near the Rich River Ice
factory and travelled across empty paddocks until it arrived at the
residential properties in located in Lignum Lane. Here, the tornado
removed a roof from one of the houses and re-arranged the contents
of several back yards before it moving on towards Perricoota
Road.
The instant the tornado crossed Perricoota Road was
captured by a photographer from the local paper, the Riverine
Herald. Her photo clearly shows the classic tornado
“funnel” as well as debris flying through the air from
the storm. Immediately after crossing the road, the tornado smashed
into two large trees growing next to the road, snapping them off
like matchsticks. The tornado then continued moving in a
south-westerly direction towards the Murray River, but seemed to
quickly lose strength soon after crossing the road. All told, the
tornado was active for about 15 minutes. Fortunately, nobody was
injured during the storm. Echuca and Moama were very lucky that
they were not directly in the path of the tornado or the
destruction could have been far worse.
About the cache:
The cache is located at the site of the two large trees mown
down by the tornado on Perricoota Road. The trees were originally
similar in size to the ones left standing by the storm close by.
This serves as a good example of both how narrow the path of
destruction left by the tornado was and how destructive the winds
of even a “small” tornado can be.
Please be aware that this is a busy area with significant
passing vehicle and foot traffic and care should be taken when
retrieving the cache.
A scratchie is included in the cache as a prize for the FTF.