In 1915, Douglas Mawson wrote of this phenomenon observed at Cape Dennison in 1911:
Traveling over the sea the whirlies displayed fresh capabilities. Columns of brash-ice, frozen spray and water-vapour were frequently seen lifted to heights of from two hundred to four hundred feet, simulating water-spouts. On the land one might observe several wandering about the landscape simultaneously, outlined by snow dust sucked up a great height. They were altogether an uncanny proposition.
(Mawson, 2002;79)