THIS Sunday will mark 50 years since a tornado ripped through Mandurah doing extensive damage.
The waterspout turned tornado hit just after noon on June 15, 1964.
The force of the tornado was such that iron sucked up by it was later found about 10 kilometres away in the opposite direction to the storm path.
The tornado’s track was 180-metres wide and it was on the ground for 10 minutes.
Locals who remember the event recall the roof of Seabreeze Deli on Anstruther Road being lifted off.
Severe damage to trees and houses in the tornado path could be seen around Allnutt Street and on Service Street a boat was moved on its trailer, such was the wind’s destructive force.
Historians say one of the most striking features of the tornado was its almost perfectly straight path.
The width of major damage reached up to 50 yards at its worst.
Witnesses recalled seeing the ‘spiralling action’ of the tornado with one local resident seeking shelter at the old bowling club during the wind’s peak.
The 1964 tornado included characteristics consistent with other tornadoes including upper divergence and surface convergence creating instability in the atmosphere and surface conditions favourable for tornado development.
Ref: Tornado at Mandurah, 15th June 1964. By RR Brook. (1965)