What was done
The author reviews the characteristics of cyclones occurring south of the equator and eastward from longitude 90°E to 120°W in the South Pacific and southeast Indian Oceans, concentrating on the 2001-2002 cyclone season and comparing the results with those of the preceding four years and the 36 years before that.

What was learned
Hall determined that "the 2001-2002 tropical cyclone season in the South Pacific and southeast Indian Ocean was one of the quietest on record, in terms of both the number of cyclones that formed, and the impact of those systems on human affairs."  In the southeast Indian Ocean, he writes that "the overall number of depressions and tropical cyclones was below the long-term mean."  Further east he found that broad-scale convection was near or slightly above normal, but that "the proportion of tropical depressions and weak cyclones developing into severe cyclones was well below average," which result represented "a continuation of the trend of the previous few seasons."  Specifically, Hall writes that "in the eastern Australian region, the four-year period up to 2001-2002 was by far [our italics] the quietest recorded in the past 41 years."

What it means
In stark contrast to the climate-alarmist claim that tropical cyclone numbers and strength tend to increase with global warming, these real-world observations suggest that, if anything, just the opposite appears to be occurring in the Southern Hemisphere.