| Brian Cassey Photographer Cairns Australia

20th March … Category 5 Cyclones … Larry (2006) & Narelle (2026) …

March 26, 2026March 19, 2026

Twenty years ago today, 19th March 2006, category 5 Cyclone Larry was zeroing in on Innisfail, just like Cat 5 Cyclone Narelle is arrowing in on Coen Cape York Peninsula, landfall tomorrow.

At daybreak on that Friday the 20th March ‘06 Larry barrelled into the township and across much of the Cassowary Coast, leaving devastation and ruined lives in it’s wake.

Working for newspaper media, I arrived in a peaceful Innisfail on the 19th and booked into the Riverside Motel … only half of that motel survived the cyclones hammering. Wind gusts, some over 240 km/h, made short work of infrastructure across a large area between Cairns and Townsville.

The story of Cyclone Larry kept me occupied for many months after that fateful emotionally and physically exhausting day. Here (below) I’m featuring just some of the many images I made showing the extent of the cyclone damage and the stoicism of the people of far north Queensland. They were published widely and syndicated around the planet.

It appears that the inhabitants of the Coen area may well tomorrow experience cyclonic winds in excess of Larry’s 240 km/h … and I have a first hand understanding of what that will mean for them. I wish them luck and safety …

Images © Brian Cassey 2006 … From Top … Kate Charleston emerges bloodied from her destroyed Innisfail home … an Innisfail resident tries making a phone call from the wreck of her home … 68 year old Clotilda Lazzarich under the remnants of her Mourilyan home … residents inspect the remains of their Innisfail home … the view from the Riverside Motel Innisfail during the passage of Cyclone Larry … Carol Milini in her saturated roofless Innisfail home … shattered buildings in the township of Mourilyan … a destroyed house near Babinda … Percy (73) and Faye Lowe (69) salvage trinkets from their unroofed Babinda home … as Larry abates Innisfail residents in shock explore the damage to their Innisfail township … a young family leave their destroyed home at Mission Beach … at this InnisfaIl home the only thing left standing was the ‘dunny’ … Judy Stevens salvages essentials from her roofless kitchen …

Blast From the Past … Northern Beachcomber … Off to Cairns Historical Society …

March 12, 2026March 10, 2026

Way, WAY back in the late 80’s a handful of disenchanted The Cairns Post staff and contributors changed editorial track and published a new Cairns newspaper specifically catering to the northern beach suburbs communities.

The weekly ‘Northern Beachcomber’ became a reality in 1989 produced by the tiny team of Geoff Cooke (Editor), wife Rhonda Cooke (Reception & Admin), Pam Cooke (Typesetter), journalists Cat Atkins (Lindsay) and later Margo Nugent (Zlotkowski) … with myself producing all the photography. (NB … back in those days I was a shy young pup and all my photographs were published under my by-line ‘Sport ‘n’ Life Pictures’ ! )

For three years the ‘Beachcomber’ … Initially printed in Port Douglas … became an integral part of the beaches community and regularly broke stories regarding the colourful residents of the Cairns northern beach suburbs and anything specific to the area.

A thorn in the side of the Cairns Post until in 1992 News Ltd chose to ‘buy’ the ’Northern Beachcomber’ to nullify the opposition. The Post then ran the ‘Northern Beachcomber’ for a short while before closing it.

I must have known something back in those days as I carefully hoarded TWO copies of each edition in boxes under the house ! Coming across them a little while ago I offered a complete set of the newspaper to the Cairns Historical Society, who gladly snapped them up for historical reference and preservation ! They can now be accessed on request (I believe) at the Cairns Museum in the School of Arts building, corner of Lake and Shields Streets.

Just in time for the upcoming Cairns 150th Anniversary later this year …

Below is a small selection of ‘Northern Beachcomber front covers and back pages featuring some of my favourite images published back in 1989-1992.

Images in Northern Beachcomber publications © Brian Cassey

Covid Lockdown in Cairns …

July 31, 2023August 14, 2021

… seemed inevitable that it would happen sometime … and will likely happen again … a coronavirus pandemic lockdown in Cairns. Our tropical city has led a charmed life since last years initial lockdown in March and April … and we’ve watched as lockdowns have been instituted regularly around the rest of the country.

It took a mariner who had contracted the virus on an offshore ship before travelling back to Cairns and passing it on to a taxi driver to change all that and spark a (thankfully only) three day total lockdown.

These are just a few of the many images I made for Australian Associated Press (AAP) this week. More of my lockdown pics may be found on the AAP site here. (I also spent time covering the lockdown for News Ltd and you may have seen some of those in the local media.)

From top we have … 9 year old Lexie Barlow is tested by QML staff for covid-19 at a testing centre on the Cairns Esplanade … the Cairns Esplanade Lagoon empty and closed for the lockdown duration … masked indigenous children Isiah Bligh and Jakian Costello play in the rain during the Yarrabah lockdown … with occupancy down to seventeen percent a housekeeper patrols the empty corridors of the Cairns Hilton Hotel … Cairns residents queue for covid-19 testing at a QML test centre on the Esplanade … a girl exercises on the Cairns Esplanade during the lockdown.

Cairns has been fortunate since the pandemic began early in 2020 … and fingers crossed these are the last images of a local lockdown.

Images © Brian Cassey and AAP

“Victims of Sorcery” … PNG …

August 1, 2023October 7, 2018

Spent a few days … not near enough … with legendary News Ltd journo Cindy Wockner in Goroka in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea working on a story for News360 on victims of sorcery.

Variously named as ‘Sanguma’, ‘Poison’ and other local monikers … sorcery related violence has exploded in PNG in recent years. There is little evidence that the phenomena has a long history. It appears that the crimes are opportunistic using vicious attacks and, indeed, murder … and an accusation of sorcery is a convenient weapon against the vulnerable. Once the victim is tainted with a sorcery accusation the stigma generally lasts for life. Families of those accused also suffer the consequences.

We spoke to and photographed more than a dozen, girls and women, boys and men, who had experienced attacks at the hands of sorcery accusers … but none were as graphic and heart rending as the story we heard (through an interpreter) from sisters Dorcas Numbi Nunugi and Pita Ambane. They and Dorcas’s son Ari were accused of sorcery after a family member died. Dorcas was attacked with an axe and her arm almost severed. She received other axe wounds on her thigh and head. Then she was tortured with iron bars that had been heated in a fire leaving massive scars on her torso and legs.

Her sister suffered a fractured skull from an axe blow to the head and other injuries … but somehow they escaped alive.

Many don’t … their bodies thrown in the river or any convenient hole.

Needless to say, Cindy’s story is compelling reading … but not easy to find … the link is here … www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/evil-sorcery-and-witchcraft-killings-exposed-in-papua-new-guinea-as-victims-flee-villages/news-story/3d7153f581a3f0a7b5ca63bc8a99ead0 … but as it’s ‘Premium’ content it may be inaccessible behind the paywall (alternatively subscribe to the Courier, read, see the pics and watch the accompanying video on your iPad or other device 🙂 )

However … you CAN read Cindy’s story … “Evil Sorcery and Witchcraft Killings Exposed in Papua New Guinea as Victims Flee Villages” … here below.

I’ve also posted (below) … just a few of the images I made whilst covering the story … and have concentrated here on those of Dorcas and her sister Pita recovering from their attacks in a ‘safe house’ in Goroka. I will eventually post a full pic essay on “Victims of Sorcery”.

ABC Media Watch … Manus Island Detention Centre … We Were There …

April 5, 2018November 13, 2017

ABC Media Watch aired a segment on the lack of media coverage when the Australian Government closed the Manus Island PNG Lombrum asylum seeker detention centre leaving over six hundred refugees without water, food, power, medicines or any other essential services. Myself and journalist Rory Callinan were there … and managed to work inside the abandoned camp. Not sure if the Media Watch coverage was a good or a bad thing!