Cyclones and Cassowaries: Cyclone Winifred and its multi-species history

Despite being often regarded as a human-centred disaster, cyclones are a meteorological phenomenon that affects multispecies communities. Using the case study of Cyclone Winifred in far north Queensland, Australia, in 1986, I demonstrate how a cyclone can be a more-than-human event in which humans, cassowaries, rainforest plants and animals, domestic animals, and atmospheric processes are all interconnected participants. Cyclone Winifred entwined human and ecological impacts that reconfigured relationships among species, ecological processes and landscapes. It created new vulnerabilities, dependencies and forms of recovery that emerged unevenly across multiple lives. In applying a more-than-human lens to an analysis of Cyclone Winifred, this paper argues for a reconceptualisation of disasters. Just as cyclones are co-created, disaster managers must recognise that in their aftermath, response and recovery must be recognised as a multi-species endeavour.

Dr Margaret Cook is an ARC Industry Research Fellow in the Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University. She is the author of A River with a City Problem: A History of Brisbane Floods and co-editor (with Scott McKinnon) of Disasters in Australia and New Zealand.

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