Cyclones tend to be thought of as northern Australian phenomena. Certainly on the east coast, the greatest incidence of these storms has been in the zone between Cooktown and Cairns. But in the first eighty years of record-keeping 10 per cent of all Queensland cyclones wobbled their erratic courses as far south as the border with New South Wales. Sixty years ago, two cyclones formed off Rockhampton and headed south. They lashed the coast with torrential rain and blinded mariners battling heavy seas and gale force winds. Nobody realised it at the time, but one of those storms helped to…