The 1930 Melbourne Cup - Phar Lap and the Weather

One of the iconic events in Australian sporting history – the 1930 Melbourne Cup – was won by the legendary Phar Lap. This was an immensely popular win, coming as it did in the depths of the Great Depression that ravaged Australia at the time. 

The date was Tuesday 4th November 1930 and the existing photographs of the day show sunshine, a crowd in hats and coats, no umbrellas and no sign of windy conditions.

Phar Lap wins the 1930 Melbourne Cup. The image clearly shows shadows created by individuals in the crowd, indicating sunshine at race time.(State Library of Victoria)

However a closer look at the meteorology surrounding the event shows that the benign weather was preceded by highly turbulent conditions, with strong winds, rain and volatile temperatures right across the previous day. With just a small change in the timings this famous Cup day could have been a very different occasion.

The Bureau of Meteorology synoptic chart for 9 am 3 November 1930 as it appeared in “The Argus” the next day.

"The synoptic chart on 3rd November shows a strong cold front near Adelaide with the close packed isobars a feature over south-eastern parts of South Australia and western Victoria. The accompanying Bureau “Notes on the Chart” were instructive: “The rapid development of a deep atmospheric depression in the eastern Bight was the outstanding feature of Monday morning’s weather. As shown by the isobaric chart the foremost half of this depression was receiving a strong flow of northerly winds from the inland areas of eastern Australia. During the day the centre of the depression moved to the eastern entrance to Bass Strait and also deepened considerably, this intensification of the disturbance being attended by northerly winds of almost gale force at many places in Victoria. Dust storms were plentiful inland and in Melbourne the dust was much in evidence, first in the coppery hue of the sky during the afternoon and later in fierce dust squalls after 7 pm, the wind reaching 44 miles an hour. Shortly after a light fall of “red” rain occurred in the city. At 9 pm the wind changed to a cool westerly, temperatures fell 10 degrees almost at once and the showers recommenced”. 

 The Bureau records show that the maximum temperature in Melbourne on Monday 3rd November was 31.3C and the next day, Melbourne Cup day, was only 17.7C. Rainfall for the 24 hours at 9 am on Cup Day was 3.6 mm and over the next 24 hours 2.5 mm was recorded. From the photographic evidence it looks as though the weather had cleared for the Cup – but the timing appeared to be a close thing.

Phar lap soon after the race – sunny conditions still in evidence ("The Australasian" Saturday 8th November 1930)

For the record there were two horses with “weather “ names in the 1930 Melbourne Cup. 

Phar Lap is Thai for “sky flash” or lightning, and the horse that was runner up was “Second Wind”.

Recent publications by the author: 

From Gods to Gigabytes – a Brief History of Weather Forecasting 

Firewise, Firesafe - How to Survive a Bushfire

For information about either publication you can contact the author at 

weathersmart047@gmail.com