Loss of ABC Shortwave put fishermen at risk

[VK3RX]

The wisdom of the ABC dropping their HF service aside, given what he said about radio conditions affecting the BoM HF marine services, he wasn't likely to hear Radio Australia anyway.

That may be the case, but keep in mind the HF broadcasters, run a lot more power and far, far bigger arrays than marine HF stations, than even government  sites.
That "may" have made the difference.

The quality of reception in the middle of thunderstorms, I'm not sure.

In any case, it would be relying on RA just happening to be broadcasting a warning about the cyclone at the time, and I don't know if they did that sort of thing in the later years, or the programming was simply a rebroadcast of RN programming.

I would be surprised if the cyclone was a complete surprise to everyone in the region, which would suggest it would/should have been known about in advance, and therefore it's movements something to keep monitoring.

If the ATSB are investigating, I suspect they will look at all aspects of the incident.