Australian Cyclones 2006

I live in the US, and everyone I know is an avid hurricane watcher. Weather becomes a big deal during hurricane season, but the US media rarely talks about southern hemisphere cyclones. So, for all you Aussies and New Zealanders - is your cyclone season shaping up to be as bad as the northern hemisphere hurricane season was?

So far this season, there has only been one Cyclone, "Clare". This was a catergory 3/4 in the north west of Western Australia. Although strong, as it crossed the coast it lost power quickly. The region is very sparsely populated, virtually desserted except for a few coastal service towns. There are a selection of mines though that had to be shutdown and also oil rigs. The eastern seaboard, where the major population is located has had nothing as of yet but the cyclone high season is usually from about now till april.

Thank you. I looked at a weather graph and saw Clare sweeping all down (up?) the coast and thought how bad that would be considered in the US. I hope your oil prices don't go up. And I hope you all don't get hit this year.