Photojournalist Glenn Campbell was covering Cyclone Alfred and called me just before he evacuated from Lismore yesterday afternoon.

As ever he’s good for a yarn and yesterday he told me a few tales from a long career chasing cyclones – and much more – as an “accidental cyclone tourist.”

Glenn Campbell – Lismore

I just went for a walk over the southside of Lismore and … Jesus Chris mate, the town is just deserted.

I don’t know where everyone has gone to but it’s just empty.  I reckon the evacuation of the Lismore CBD was done with military precision. I saw the front bar of the Civic Hotel being wheeled out on trolleys – flat-screen TVs, the bar, the works. All thrown into the back of a truck and driven away.

I reckon they learnt from the 2022 flood when 13-metre floodwaters went right through the town. The SES mob reckon this will go over the levee wall pretty soon.

The last time I was in Lismore was in the 2002 floods when Lismore was hit with crazy winds, flash flooding and hail the size of golf balls.

The only way I could get into the town then was to drive as far as I could from Ballina Airport, pull up at the edge of the floodwater and hoof it into town through the water.

Compared to the last time I was here; this time they’ve got their shit together. The Army’s here and the SES is here in a major way.

They really have got their shit together. I mean, compared to some of the half-arsed efforts I’ve seen in the Top End, these guys really have it down pat.

News Flash! There’s a bloke doing burnouts in an XB Falcon in the carpark over the road, and the cops are only about 50 metres away … some people!

I tell you, if it isn’t the stupid, just about anything can kill you down here! We have the wildest electrical storms I’ve ever seen, hailstones the size of pickle-balls, blue-bottles, great White Sharks and – more dangerous because they can turn up in fresh or salt water – Bull Sharks!

Cyclones – from Tracy to Alfred

I remember Cyclone Tracy that hit Darwin on Christmas Eve 1974. Our family made sandwiches for the refugees that were evacuated from Darwin. I was four years old!

There’ve been a lot of cyclones that I’ve covered in my career as a photojournalist. I like to think of myself as an “Accidental Cyclone Tourist”!

One of the earliest I covered was Cyclone Justin that went through Townsville in late March 1997. I was living there back then and I tell you, I saw some wild sights that day. Dogs were trapped, people were trapped, the roads turned into 2-metre deep rivers. There were pictures everywhere and it was the first big natural disaster I covered as a photographer.

Cyclone Steve fired up off Cairns as a category 2 in late February 2000, then crossed Cape York, bumped along the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria and ran right across the guts of the crossed the NT and hit the coast again at Broome as a category 1.

Nicolas Rothwell and I – he was the northern correspondent with The Australian then – we grabbed a car and drove down the Great Northern Highway south of Broome. Then we had to go inland through Meekatharra and Kalgoorlie to avoid the bugger and so we could get to the airport and get out of there (laughs).

Cyclone Steve was massive. It dumped an absolute shitload of rain in the Great Sandy Desert.

It’s marvellous what those big weather systems can do to the Australian desert country!

A big one that wreaked a path of absolute destruction in the Northern Territory was Cyclone Monica. It’s a weird thing but there are two cyclone Monica’s – one in late 1984 and another in April 2006.

I was in Darwin and I remember that it hit land around Anzac Day and local videographer Simon Manzie and I chartered a light plane out of Darwin and headed for Maningrida.

I remember flying across where Monica hit and I reckon for about 50 kilometres there wasn’t a tree standing. It was like a giant scythe had just sliced them all off at ground level. That really freaked me out … it was just incredible.

Cyclone Carlos took a really strange track. It was February 2011 and it cut right across the Top End of the Northern Territory then tracked down the West Australian coastline to fizzle out somewhere offshore from Perth.

Carlos wasn’t a big deal but I remember it because one of my mates had only just finished renovating his house and a great big African Mahogany tree fell on his fucking house! Poor bugger – he’d only finished the renovations that week!

Cyclone Nathan – the 2015 one not the 2008 one – started somewhere south of Niu Guinea and rolled around in the Coral Sea before making landfall and crossing Cape York to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Then it ran across the whole of the NT from Nhulunbuy to south of Darwin, where it petered out over the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in late March.

Cyclone Nathan bounced around the country like ten pairs of jocks in a washing machine!

The next big one I remember in the Top End of the NT was Cyclone Marcus that roared past Darwin as a category 2 in March 2018. Marcus was a rare one as it was the first daytime cyclone I’d ever been in.

Marcus may have “only” been a category 2 but thousands of trees were brought down or stripped bare, and a lot of cars and buildings were damaged and thousands of locals were left without power.

Stranger things …

The strangest things I’ve seen in a cyclone would have to be my girlfriend’s flatmate coming around the corner in her car and having a head-on collision with mine. That was in Cyclone Justin in Townsville.

Another was boats where they shouldn’t be – like stuck up a tree or up on a hill! Lawn furniture sailing past me 25 metres up while I’m having a beer on my verandah. Now that was weird!

The other thing about Cyclone Justin that was pretty amazing was because day after Justin hit the world wasn’t as it was when we went to bed the night before. My girlfriend and I got pissed and played “scrabble” all night. We woke up and the whole fucking place was blown away!

We woke up and the whole fucking place was blown away!

Sadder things …

The saddest thing I ever saw at a cyclone were these people in Maningrida after Monica in 2006. Their house had just exploded … like literally fucking exploded. I don’t how the fuck they survived.  They were sitting outside the wreck of their house with a little fire going trying to dry some clothes out.

 It was still pissing down rain. One of them had cracked open a coconut because they didn’t have any food. That was really fucking sad … and yes, of course I got a photo.

Funnier things …

The funniest things I’ve seen in a cyclone are my kids. I’ve never been prouder of them than during Cyclone Marcus in 2018 and during Albert in Brisbane just this past week.

Brisbane certainly dodged a bullet but my daughter had the best attitude! She calls me up and says, “Dad, it’s only a category 2!” And that day she was out training – she’s a footie goalie. But she’s really tough, she’ already been through three cyclones! So, Albert was easy for her.

Things that’ll kill you, Ford Ranger drivers and a suspiciously-placed Subaru

If it isn’t the stupid, just about anything can kill you down here! We have the wildest electrical storms I’ve ever seen, hailstones the size of pickle-balls, blue-bottles, Great White Sharks and – more dangerous because they can turn up in fresh or salt water – Bull Sharks!

The most dangerous thing of all are the “P”-plate drivers of Ford Ranger utes … they make this place a fucking death trap!

Oh, and earlier today I found one of those Subaru’s that look like they’ve been strategically placed in the flood zone for the insurance money!

There’s a whole bunch of suspiciously-placed Subaru’s around Lismore.

What future for an Accidental Cyclone Tourist?

There are plenty of cyclone and storm chasers but not many who’ve covered as many storms and wild weather as I have. In my time I’ve covered bits and pieces of a lot of different cyclones.

I’ve only sat through a total of six or seven but I’ve covered the preparations for or tail-end of about sixteen or so all up.

This one – Cyclone Albert – might be the last cyclone I cover! There might not be anyone willing to pay me to cover a cyclone!

All photos ©GlennCampbell from Cyclone Alfred, 2025 and used with kind permission.
You can follow Glenn Campbell on the usual social media but I recommend going to Glenn Campbell Photography for more images & info.