Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus., Western) a cyclone or thunderstorm.

1884		Inquirer & Commercial News (Perth, WA) 6 Aug. 5/4: There is another kind of storm known as Cock-eye Bob. It usually comes on at noonday and lasts till midnight. The first warning you have of its approach is a violent dust storm. This is succeeded by reports of thunder and frequent flashes of lightning. Finally, the rain sets in steadily for some hours.
1894		Age (Melbourne) 20 Jan. 13/4: They [i.e. the natives of the northwest of Western Australia] are extremely frightened of them [i.e. storms], and in some places even on the approach of an ordinary thunderstorm or ‘Cock-eyed Bob,’ they clear off to the highest ground about.
1908		C. Tomalin Venturesome Tom 142: The goldfields after the dust storm, was a sight never to be forgotten [...] the miners rushing to the hotel for drink to wash out, as they said, their eyes and nose and mouth, after this ‘willy willy’ or ‘cock-eyed Bob’ dust storm.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Aug. 13/1: We were making for King’s Sound and ‘the graveyard,’ and were three days out from Broome when a strong ‘cockeye’ struck us from the NE., making further progress impossible, as our fore-boom carried away. [...] Next morning we made a good start, and were just out of the bay when we met another violent ‘cockeye,’ this time from SE., so we had to anchor again. [...] I judge that this part of the coast is the most uncertain and dangerous in Australia; that is, in its normal condition, saying nothing of ‘cockeyes’ and ‘willy willies.’.
1912		Sydney Morn. Herald 29 Mar. 5/5: The origin of the term ‘cock-eye Bob’ is curious. Bob Sholl, a nor’-west pearler, was out in a lugger with a Binghi, when one of these ‘baby blows’ suddenly swooped down upon them. The nigger exclaimed ‘Koki Bob,’ which, being interpreted, meant ‘Hurry up, Bob.’ For a long time afterwards the pearlers warned each other with the cry ‘Koki Bob,’ and this has been corrupted to ‘cock-eye Bob,’ and the name is given to minor storms that periodically visit the coast.
1926		Advocate (Melbourne) 15 Apr. 29: Such storms as the ‘Cock-Eye-Bob’ and ‘Willy Willy’ are very familiar to the ‘Nor-Wester’ ol West Australia.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 24: A storm of the type called Cockeye Bob in Capricornia [...] burst over Flying Fox in the middle of the night.
1947		Advocate (Melbourne) 23 Apr. 15/2: The ‘Willy Willy’ had the bad manners at times to upset calculations by overturning storage tanks. One particular specimen of this wind which natives dubbed ‘Cock Eye Bob,’ was especially troublesome —apparently the Bill Sykes of the wind world.
1953		Advocate (Burine, Tas.) 23 may 18/1: Unseasonal cock-eye bobs (as the really ‘big-fella’ willie-willies of the north-west are known), turned me back late last month from beyond Pt. Hedland. Roaring in from the Indian Ocean they razed homesteads and wrecked jetties ... they demolished windmills. In their wake came torrential rains ... dry gullies became raging rivers in a matter of minutes.
1964		T. Ronan Packhorse and Pearling Boat 177: About mid-afternoon a cock-eyed Bob blew up.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 51: He sends out a real grouse storm. A proper bobby-dazzler, just like one of those cockeyed bobs you get up on the north-west coast.
1974		P. Adam-Smith Barcoo Salute 151: ‘It’s a cockeye-bob following up,’ Paddy said. ‘Get in the house quick.’.
1993		Aus. Word Map 🌐 cockeye bob 1. a large whirlwind. 2. a cyclone. Also, cockeyed bob.