On March 20th the smart steamer Koombana, with 138 passengers and crew, and only a small quantity of cargo left Port Hedland for Broome in a fresh north easterly, following S.S,Bullarra which was also engaged in the north west passenger and cargo trade. A couple of hours later when they altered courses a heavy north easterly gale was setting in as a cyclone swept the area. The Bullarra was badly damaged by the cyclone but was able to limp into Cossak. The Koombana was not seen again.
A search was soon organized but several vessels which steamed over the route she would have followed found no trace of her. More ships joined the search but by the end of the month hopes of finding her had faded. On April 3rd one of the search ships steamed through a quantity of wreckage about 25 nautical miles north of Bedout Island and the following day more was sighted and recovered. Among the items identified were a lifeboat and state room door. Nothing further was retrieved although in 1973 the remains of what appeared to be a large vessel were located in deep water about 20 nautical miles off the Eighty Mile Beach. However, up to the beginning of 1994 nothing had been found. Interest in the disappearance has been maintained by the story that Mr Abraham Davis, one of the passengers, was carrying a fortune in pearls. Just before he left for Broome he was believed to have purchased a quantity of pearls including the Roseate Pearl, then valued at twenty thousand pounds, a gem that has been linked to the violent deaths of several men. There were also claims that the ghost of Mr Davis haunted the historic Bishop’s Palace in Broome, his original home, before it was demolished in 1980. Built at Glasgow in 1908, the Koombana was a steel steamer of 3668 tonnes on dimensions of 340.1 x 48.2 x 20.8 feet. She was owned by the Adelaide Steam Ship Company and her master was Captain Allen. The cyclone also destroyed the Norwegian ship Crown Of England which was anchored off Balla Balla, Depuch Island, loading copper ore. In the high winds and seas her anchor chains parted and she was swept on to a reef off the island where huge seas soon battered her to pieces with the loss of 8 lives. Built at Workington in 1883, she was an iron ship of 1847 tonnes on dimensions of 267 x 39.1 x 23.6 feet. She was owned by Norwegian interests. The iron barque Concordia, 1308 tonnes, from Swansea, was also anchored off Balla Balla loading copper from the Whim Creek Mine, and when her chains parted in the cyclone she was forced on to the beach. When the winds abated she was high and dry and the crew were able to clamber ashore. She was later refloated and towed to Fremantle but never returned to service, finishing her days as a coal hulk. An iron vessel built at Vegesack, Germany in 1890, she measured 222.4 x 34 x 20.4 feet. Other vessels that perished in that cyclone were Enterprise, Steady, Clyo, Clara, Britannia, Karrakata, Mary, Constance and Kookie. It was estimated that about 60 lives were lost in the disaster, but only 20 bodies were recovered for burial 
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