LAST SPOKEN NORTHEAST OF BEDOUT ISLAND?

Sunday Times, Perth, 31 March, 1912.

The ill-fated steamer could not have sought

safety in the open sea, for the cyclone, veered 

round from E.N.E. to S.W., and would thus have 

been more likely to drive her towards the land. 

It would be a miracle if she had escaped seaward. 

Therefore, as she has not been found along the 

Ninety-Mile Beach or in La Grange Bay, we are

led to the terrible alternative that she was engulfed 

somewhere north-east of Bedout Island, where 

she was last spoken.

An interesting interpretation of the movement of the cyclone. Ninety-Mile beach is actually Eighty-Mile beach. 

Again relying on the accuracy of the press report it strikes me as odd that Koombana was 'spoken northeast of Bedout Island'. By whom and at what position?? This seems improbable, but one never knows....

However, a very powerful statement made that Koombana was likely to have been 'engulfed somewhere north-east of Bedout Island'. In my opinion, the very essence of the disaster.  

courtesy Google Earth

Light at Bedout Island - courtesy Ralph Meakins

courtesy Trove