American reacts to Cyclone Tracy - Australia's Christmas Cyclone

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[@istp1967]

Oh My God! Frame 1128. IT'S DAD! Cutting that fencing stayline! I mean I knew he was working on the City Council; but we didn't think we'd see a picture of him 50 years later.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@jillymck51]

I was right in the middle Cyclone Tracy. Lost absolutely everything, nearly decapitated, brother, the screams of the tin roofs being ripped off the howl of the wind, the fear my brother would bleed to death before we could get help, the 1000s of cockroaches that sat on my head as the water rose around us. I could go on and on... I have replayed it in my head for decades now!!!

[@AusMarineRobotics]

Only those who have been in a cyclone like Tracey have heard anything like that noise. Like nothing I've heard before or since.

[@pierreborg]

You can say whatever you like about us, Aussie's, but when the shit hits the fan, we can definitely count on each other . You can have no better mate than an Aussie. They'll never let you down when it counts the most.

[@martinjenkins6467]

We have to get on with it.floods , Cyclones and bush fires we have to Be tough.

[@lynnefiller6271]

My family sheltered in the bathroom (a couple of kids in the bathtub, another couple in the shower) with mattresses over the top. The noise was unbelievable. I never knew wind could make that kind of sound - like some kind of tortured prehistoric animal, but louder than you could believe possible. When the eye came it was deathly quiet. You could hear people calling out to each other and then it turned around and started again from the opposite direction. When the sun finally came up and we could see outside we honestly thought we were the only people left alive. The devastation was total. No fresh water or electricity (obviously). We had to immediately cook, over an open fire, any meat we had to stop it going off in the heat, boil rain water for drinking. Mum and us younger kids were evacuated to Brisbane while Dad and my older brothers stayed to help with the clean up and rebuild. So many traumatised people never returned. I’ve lived through a lot of natural disasters since then but none come close to that night.

[@nancybell5940]

This is so similar to my experience too. We did not live in a stilt home. We lived in a single story brick home across the oval from Alawa Primary School, on Styles St. I was 8 years old. The noise is like nothing else I have ever heard, unforgettable. We sheltered in the bathroom, Mum, my older brother and I sitting in the bath, Dad on the toilet and an Aunty on a chair, mattress overhead. Eventually there was nothing but sky overhead. Mum, my brother and I were eventually evacuated to Perth WA while dad stayed to help with the cleanup. I remember the huge lines for the mass vaccinations, and having a dress with little puff sleeves with elastic that was really painful once my vaccination spots swelled up. I remember walking on the foot path to check out neighbours and friends the next morning and seeing dead birds on the ground 😢 and just massive destruction everywhere you looked.

[@liammcintosh8466]

I’m sorry this happened to you. But what an incredible survival story. Well done for surviving and/or getting out

[@Ash05771]

It’s amazing that you survived that

[@Minnastina]

Wow... So U live up here too?!??🤷

[@dusty4502]

Wow. These stories are incredible

[@jesamindee6783]

When the rest of Australia heard what happened to Darwin, people from all over the nation dropped what they were doing, left their jobs and headed to Darwin, to help in the clean up and rebuild the town. My husband was one who headed to Darwin to assist in the rebuild. Tradesmen from all over Australia spent months, without pay to help! But that's what Aussies do, when disasters hit we all rally around,and when help is needed they'll do what ever they can! Most of the women and children were evacuated out of Darwin leaving the men behind. People put them up in their homes till they could return.

[@tanyabrown9839]

Yes, my father got there quite early after it and stayed and helped with the clean up. I have his photos taken before the cleanup got underway

[@gailcoffey466]

Darwin is incredibly hot and humid in the wet season, so the homes were built on stilts so fresh air and any breezes to flow up through the house, There were many more than 70 killed! Evacuations were not done until after the cyclone!

[@ozkaz13]

Unfortunately, it took this storm, which made Darwin safer afterwards with homesing standards. It is a hot place, so the homes on stilts for air circulation like a Queenslander house.

[@tnytyson]

My fam helped out

[@Phatzo1000]

My uncle was at a Christmas party the night before and came home really drunk and went to sleep. He woke up the next day and said Santa had been because yesterday he only had one shed in his yard and woke up with two.

[@rebeccasymons7438]

My grandmother's china dinner set was in a cabinet on the wall when Cyclone Tracy came through. It weirdly survived in one piece even though the house was pretty much gone. Dad still has that dinner set today. :)

[@julierice100]

Our humour is not morbid... Its the way we deal with shit/crap/etc I am vintage Aussie.. We are built differently..lol...❤

[@tanyiabailey4792]

We sure are ❤

[@rhonda-qc6qy]

@socialtechtv8493 My vintage parts keep falling off!

[@Aquarium-Downunder]

Darwin will not give in. Japs V Darwin, Darwin wins God V Darwin, Darwin wins

[@judithstrachan9399]

If we didn’t laugh, we’d never stop crying.

[@waynegreene6405]

The homes are built on stilts or built up Ryan so the air can circulate underneath as the humidity in the wet season is a bugger mate. We don’t have a morbid humour so much but if we don’t try to have a bit of a laugh mate we would break down instead. The whole of Aus helped where we could including taking in people from Darwin until they could move back after the clean up.

[@madamewitch8226]

This was such big news in Australia - every kid in the country donated their xmas presents to the cyclone appeal - many people died that were unidentified as Darwin was a town full of drifters from other parts and they never identified alot of people - There were many more dead that the news reported: A very sad day for Australia the entire country was in shock.

[@prudencebottos6087]

My dad was involved with the evacuation. He was a pilot with TAA and was rostered off Xmas day. Recieved a phone call at 8am Christmas day saying what had happened and asking (as he was route endorsed) if he would captain a flight to take supplies and evacuate people. He signed on a 5pm with crew including flt attendants and medical personnel. Operated flight melbourne to alice springs where they slept on floor overnight as darwin airport closed due no power. He briefed all crew that they ALL would be expected to unload aircraft as seats were loaded with relief supplies. When they landed, it was all hands on deck to unload. When they loaded passrngers onboard, everyone over the age of 12, incl flight attendants was nursing a child. Except the two pilots. Had approx 200 people on board for a flight to Alice springs. The aircraft was a DC9. Dad and they crew were santas for those kids as they'd insisted that there was sweets and toys for kids in the relief supplies

[@suzyfarnham3165]

The Aussie Sprit always shine through when disaster strikes. I was it in Darwin and also in the 2011 Brisbane floods. I spent days with friends who lost all digging through mud to find and wash anything I could. There were people who just came up for holidays that spent every day working with us> Random strangers who spent 2 weeks in knee deep mud. #AussieSpirit

[@downunder4243]

There is actually a song by Bill & Boyd, about the cyclone it’s called, “Santa never made it into Darwin”.

[@gregconnaughton1409]

theres also a hoodoo gurus song about tracey called tojo

[@ComaDave]

"A big wind came and blew the town away"

[@suzyfarnham3165]

My Dad banned that song in our home. I guess it just trauma. We did not reunite as a whole family for months afterwards. Dad was RAAF and stayed up there.

[@steveredacted1394]

Here's a link to the song kzbin.info/www/bejne/jHvMkJ54fs6NaqM

[@fayriader]

Cyclone, hurricane or typhoon - all the same; what it is called depends on whether it is in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. Darwin is located in the Northern Territory. It is well and truly in the tropics and Summer temperatures and humidity are very high. Houses in the warmer top half of Australia are often highest to catch breezes for coolness; before air-conditioning of course.

[@aussieragdoll4840]

This Darwin was the 2nd Darwin. The first one was bombed by the Japanese during WWII (fun fact… Australia had MORE Japanese bombs dropped on it than happened at Pearl Harbour). The moved the town a bit… after this event… all new houses were built to withstand cyclones. Darwin hasn’t had a cyclone hot since Tracy.

[@mawguwerr]

No we've had minor ones such as TC Max, TC Kathy TC Thelma and last to hit Darwin was TC Marcus which caused major power outages for several days.

[@nigelaubrey7743]

Yeah Darwin has had cyclones 🌀 since, just nowhere near as catastrophic

[@The-Cosmic-Hobo]

Wasn't it the 3rd Darwin, after the Cyclone from about 1900...

[@brucehewson5773]

WW2 Darwin is the same location as modern Darwin, and the Darwin of 1974.

[@baccycones7644]

That’s not true I was born in 2005 and been through two cyclones that hit darwin and plenty more that missed but gave us 3 weeks of rain and massive storms

[@juliashepherd4123]

They didn't evacuate before the cyclone as they had no idea it was coming! It happened in the middle of the night. No warnings.

[@ricklorimer9984]

It narrowly bypassed the town, people figured they were safe, then it turned around, came back and smashed the place.

[@kathydurow6814]

Yes, and weather prediction wasn't as good back then.

[@michaelpillingnow]

They knew it was coming, they prepared, but they had no idea it would be that bad.

[@jennifergawne3002]

There were warnings, but NT people are accustomed to weird weather. No-one expected ut to be so destructive. I was in Alice Springs and volunteered at the Darwin relief centre for the people who drove down. Such stories ...

[@videofreak6047]

I heard that the cyclone changed course and went straight to Darwin.

[@meredithpope333]

That reporter must have been making his film on Boxing Day, the cyclone started coming through on Christmas Eve and lasted to about 5:30 a.m. Christmas Day. We didn’t get told to evacuate just try to stay as safe as possible. I was lucky, I sheltered in my brother-in law’s house . Darwin is a tropical city, pre cyclone the vegetation was so lush and green, everyone had beautiful gardens with shady trees and shrubbery. Our botanical gardens were magnificent. When I looked out over my suburb on Christmas morning everything was brown, every tree was gone, every bush or fruit tree, gone. Imagine the lush scenes of Hawaii, that’s what Darwin looked like. I was 21 when Tracy happened, hearing that cyclone warning alarm really brought back the horrors of that night.

[@suzyfarnham3165]

We got told to 'tape windows" and the same we ALWAYS got told buy nobody had a clue what was coming. LAC's went to every home on the RAAF base handing out tape for windows......I remember Dad finding our loungeroom wall 400 metres away and :Laughing! "Lucky we taped all those windows!!"

[@tanyabrown9839]

@@suzyfarnham3165 Aussie humour :)

[@Kayenne54]

@@suzyfarnham3165 I lived in a cyclone prone area. Not only "tape the windows" but ALWAYS keep a window open a little on the opposite side from where the wind is coming; swap it around if the wind changes direction. If the house is entirely 'sealed', that's why the roof blows off; the interior and exterior air pressure must equalize. Taping the windows is to help stop breakage, which of course would mean strong winds would enter and blow out the walls. And everything else.

[@AusMarineRobotics]

I was 10yrs old and remember driving past the Botanical Gardens with my family two days later and the thunderous sounds of huge trees and tree limbs constantly crashing to the ground from within the gardens was one of the wierdest memories I have of Tracey. We lived in one of the Northen suburbs (Moil) and there was nothing left standing as far as you could see. No trees, no birds just total devastation.

[@Jeni10]

Our sense of humour is how we deal with such things, keeps our spirits up and motivates us to push forward and rebuild. Australians are famous for banding together in a crisis, and because of our bushfires, floods, wartime and disasters (like the Granville rail disaster), we’ve had plenty of practise over the years!

[@edwardcatton1047]

will agree!, even know Dad died in Cyclone Tracy?, being 2 years old!, it's a lot easier for me to talk about him?, but, if I was 12?, DIFFERENT STORY?.

[@Jeni10]

@@edwardcatton1047 Even at 12, your family would have helped you get through it, so would God. Life always leads to death but then to Heaven, if we believe. I’m old so everyone has gone before me except my brother. I’ve had to learn to process all of it too.

[@Linda-it6ci]

My best friends brother is a carpenter..he volunteered and went there to help rebuild homes, for FREE, meals supplies and a tent ........A LOT of services were given for FREE by the building blokes.......

[@Venice1st]

Houses were built on stilts to allow for air circulation, therefore keeping the house cooler. I remember this well, so much devastation.

[@peterolsen9131]

handy for flood reasons too

[@crackers562]

Yes, I was going to add that... it's hot and humid for much of the year... especially around December.

[@nancybell5940]

The stilt homes were the worst hit…put me off stilt homes for life

[@janmeyer3129]

Stilt homes incidentally keep people above mosquito flight heights, too

[@smecclesshwifty8548]

From the early 70s till the mid 90s dad was a bricklayer. After Tracy hit, he and his mates packed up a couple of Ute's, and drove from Melbourne to Darwin to help in the rebuilding process. He took his camera with him to document it. He still has the album around here. If I find it I'll let you know.

[@johnlaine2654]

An Australia wide TV APPEAL WAS HELD for the people of Darwin. Many millions were raised which helped to get food and clothes for those people. It took years to rebuild the city. Building regulations were updated to make sure all buildings would be built to cyclone proof as much. As possible.

[@grandy2875]

I remember the song, "Santa Never Made It To Darwin" by Bill and Boyd, being played for the first time on that Telethon. All the money from the sales went to the rebuilding fund...aussies are an amazing lot, we look after our own as much as we can. I vaguely remember mum going through all of our stuff to pack up what didn't fit us and send it to school, to go up to Darwin. I think most of the schools did something similar. 🙃🐨🇦🇺

[@suzyfarnham3165]

My family ended up with $100 and 4 blankets! I STILL have my Darwin cyclone blanket! My sisters and I were evacuated after 4 days and landed in Mt isa..I had never seen anything like it. There was food, drinks, clothing ...everything you could want.The people of Mount Isa really turned out for us. We only had 2 couple of hours before we were taken to Brisbane evacuaton Centre.We were evacuated to out closest relative...which was my Grandma n the Sunshine Coast.

[@johnlaine2654]

@@suzyfarnham3165 Actually back in 1975 $100 was quite a bit of money… about a weeks wages for the average worker. Today it seems like pocket money.Back then I donated $10 ..all I could afford in those days.I had to get a Money Order from the Post Office to send in to the TV station Telethon.I guess every dollar helped a little bit.

[@daelrance6866]

The Red Cross made a heap of money out of that Campaign. Very little actually made it to Darwin. Mum still refuses to give to the Red Cross because of it.

[@grandy2875]

​@@daelrance6866a lot of people feel the same about them... my uncle served in New Guinea and told a few stories about them, he was full of praise for the salvos though, they would be on the battlefield with the soldiers and gave out tea and coffee and bikkies etc for free, while the red cross would charge the boys for everything, nothing was free...

[@christinecoombs3536]

They weren’t evacuated. The cyclone came relatively suddenly and was much stronger than normal ones. Also, where would they evacuate to? Darwin is at the top of the Northern Territory and is relatively isolated. We had friends up there at the time and they sheltered in the bathroom , but one of their sons who was about 10 or 11 was blown out of the house and down the street. He hid in a refrigerator which had also been blown down the street, but he was missing until the storm was over.

[@Cairns74]

The terms "hurricane" and "typhoon" are regional names for tropical cyclones. All tropical cyclones are alike in that they draw heat from warm water at the ocean's surface to power horizontal, rotating wind. Although similar in size, tropical cyclones have a different energy source than synoptic cyclones, which are storm systems that draw their energy from weather fronts and jet streams. Over the Atlantic and East Pacific, tropical cyclones are commonly called "hurricanes." The common term is "typhoon" for a tropical cyclone that forms in the West Pacific. Tropical cyclones are called just "cyclones" in the Indian Ocean and near Australia.

[@dcmastermindfirst9418]

You sound like a meteorologist.

[@Cairns74]

@@dcmastermindfirst9418 i cut and pasted it directly from NASA’s website for the Yanks

[@dcmastermindfirst9418]

@Cairns74 Ha! Well done sport.

[@chadjcrase]

I've never heard of a synoptic cyclone.

[@nevilleapple629]

They spin in opposite directions is the only difference.

[@popeye807]

Even though this happened 50 years ago it still brings tears to my eyes. I was In high school at the time.

[@waterpolowizard]

Me too. I'm in tears now. I was young but I remember this

[@edwardcatton1047]

dido!, EVERY SINGLE TIME!, I see footage?, I CRY!, R.I.P DAD?, killed on board HMAS ARROW!, Cyclone Tracy!.

[@mariagrant2072]

A past work colleague told me he arrived in Darwin for a new work position the day before the Cyclone hit- he told me he hid in a bedroom closet through it - when it was over, he came out to find an open room with part of the walls ripped off and no roof, and behind the closet, the room there was gone - can you imagine what it would have been like to go through something like that on what was supposed to your first full day in a new place- most would have left - he stayed in Darwin for a few years before being reposted elsewhere.

[@christineyates2618]

Cyclone in southern hemisphere, hurricane in northern hemispher. Its cooler 6ft off the ground, most bugs stay close to the ground, hence you dont get them inside up there plus the house is cooler if the breeze gets under and over ( older houses had roves separated above the ceilings) and deep verandahs. No there was no prior evacuation. Everyone was already at Christmas parties and not listening to the radio to hear the cyclone warning when it was broad cast. Three boats in the bay were lost, one with 32 people aboard at a party was found maybe 15 years ago, the other two I believe are still lost. This is the first of the devastation situations that Oz responded to, we got better at it with practice in Indonesian sunami etc. God bless

[@paulholmes9939]

I remember this day so well. My uncle was a C130 pilot in the RAAF at the time . he was flying back from Singapore that night and was to refuel in Darwin in the morning. he got a radio message that Darwin had been hit . he flew to Katherine to refuel then returned to Darwin and circled the city and reported to Richmond airbase of the destruction they saw. they were the first aircraft to land on boxing day at Darwin airfield.

[@janemcdonald5372]

Your uncle would have known my husband. He was posted to Darwin as Crewman on the RAAF's rescue helicopter. They lived on base in married quarters. He and his then wife hunkered behind a kitchen bench. He put his 4-year-old daughter in the kitchen cupboard and put a mattress over them (she still to this day vividly remembers that night). The eye of the storm when passed right over the RAAF base. During the break he poked his head up and he saw the outside of the mattress was covered in glass shards from the glass louvred windows. After rescuing the next door neighbours from their demolished house they waited out the second half, which he said was worse that the first. Officially, wind gusts reached 217 km/h before the anemometer was destroyed. The next morning, he and other RAAF personnel spent the morning clearing the runway to allow your uncle's C-130 and others to land to assess the devastation. Although the house survived more or less intact (it still at least has its roof it wasn't habitable, soon after, my husband's family was evacuated (he chose to stay in Darwin and help with the evacuation and recovery) and were looked after so well by the Salvation Army people who also reclothed most of the evacuees who landed interstate with nothing but what they were wearing. That siren alarm at the beginning of the video would trigger all sorts of bad memories for him and he was always anxious in storms and high winds. A Qantas Boeing 747 evacuated a record passenger load of 674 passengers plus 23 crew members from Darwin as part of the evacuation of Darwin after the cyclone. This is still a record for this aircraft type.

[@paulholmes9939]

@@janemcdonald5372 He probably did meet your husband . my uncles name was Gordon Timperley I'm not sure what rank he held at that time. but they were on the ground for about 6hrs in Darwin that 1st day . then done a number of ferry flights from Richmond AB and Williams town AB bringing in supplies and personal into Darwin . in the Darwin museum there is a photo of the C130 with the crew talking to the ground personal near one of the downed hangers on the RAAF side of the airport. your husband might have been in that photo.

[@AusMarineRobotics]

​@@janemcdonald5372​My family and I were on one of those Qantas flights (about 2 weeks later). They removed all the arm rests to fit more people in and we were so grateful we didnt have to travel on a C130 Hercules like so many others - its a 5 hour flight to the nearest capital city!

[@kymjames4128]

My friend was living there at that time with her family. Her husband threw a mattress over their 8 year old son and lay on top to protect him. They both died. She hid with their 5 year old daughter on the floor next to the toilet. They survived but my friend’s leg was crushed as the wall flew off the side of the house. She walks with a distinct limp now . The cyclone was heading away but turned unexpectedly on Christmas Eve in the middle of the night.

[@Reneesillycar74]

Such heartbreak

[@Kayenne54]

The warning updates, as given then over TV or radio, were often behind what was actually happening; the technology is more up-to-date now, but back then, it could be hours behind.

[@gregneil612]

I remember this day so vividly. I just realised that it’s 50 years ago. I was 10.

[@AusMarineRobotics]

Me too and I was there!

[@AnnQlder]

We had neighbours once that had been in Darwin during cyclone Tracey, they found their baby in the front yard, in a bin, unharmed , a slightly older child nearby 😮 The house had disintegrated around them 😮😮😮

[@dee-smart]

I was in Adelaide when that happened. Horrible time for all of Australia. It shocked the living daylights out of everyone. One good thing that came from it was in the rebuilding phase, the whole city became cyclone proof. Back when the tragedy happened, most of those homes were simply wooden. That all changed.

[@kari2570]

My mother went through cyclone Tracy, she was a nurse, and said the top floor of the hospital collapsed, thankfully they had taken all the patients to the lower floor before that happened.

[@richardverren8121]

I was born in that hospital in 1952 and saw that it had survived mostly intact from photos my Dad took of Darwin just two days later.

[@davejohncole]

I lived over the road from the single doctors' accommodation for the hospital.

[@daelrance6866]

I can remember Cyclone Tracy, coming out of the half of the house still standing. That is a relative term, as nothing was vertical and their was holes everywhere. I can distinctly rember when the block of flats behind us exploded and took half of our house to the floor boards, just after the Eye of the Cyclone had passed over. Next door was just the floor boards and the next house was the reverse of ours. The predominant color after the Cyclone was grey with zero green anywhere, not even any grass. It was all covered over with corrugated Iron, timber and rubbish. The predicted wind speed was 150 KlmPh, the CSIRO wind gauge only went to 200Klpmh. The needle jumped off the paper roller and scratched into the aluminum mounting frame, until the tower collapsed. They worked out later that the wind speed was over 240Klmph, as per where the needle was. They estimate that it was a wind gust of over 260Klmph that collapsed the tower, using the engineering specifications of the tower. I have seen pictures of Cyclones since and none of them have come close to the shear size or destruction of Tracy. The amount of greenery around is a dead give away. Not even the one that holds the supposed record of wind speed to hit land in Australia. As my Father is a Civil Engineer, I also know that modern building practices are no longer what they were, as introduced, after Cyclone Tracy. They have been reduced down, to keep building cost's down. Tiles are actually allowed in Darwin now, they are only rated to 160Klmph! Mum and us boys were evacuated to Perth on a C130 Hercules, all packed in like sardines. Dad stayed back and helped rebuild Darwin. He has some fascinating story's of Aussie's getting together and helping each other, as well as some shear acts of bastardry! In those supposedly sent to help and by the usual 1% of low life's. His photo's captured at the time are a record to the ferocity of the wind speed and the resilience of Aussies.

[@AusMarineRobotics]

We were evacuated on a Qantas 737 and feel so fortunate my family didnt have to endure a 6 hr flight crammed in the back of a Hercules.

[@Coooeee]

Hey Ryan, they weren't evacuated as there was little warning. It happened Christmas night. Also, it was the wet season. Unbearable heat during the clean up. A friend of ours said that she and her 2 children sat, in what was left of the toilet in their house with no roof, while her husband held a mattress over them, all night. They built Darwin with cyclone proof style housing after Tracy.

[@DavidCalvert-mh9sy]

I went up to Darwin after Tracey, and the devastation had to be seen to be believed. It wasn't just part of Darwin. It was the whole city. A local took me on a tour of the ruins, and pointed out a 50 foot high steel water tower. It had survived, and stood out amongst the rubble. There was a big dent in the side of the large water tank on the top of the tower. I was informed by my guide that the dent was the result of someone's refrigerator hitting it.

[@wholeenchilada9599]

Correct. Crazy

[@AusMarineRobotics]

Yep I was 10 years old (see other comment) and the scene when we emerged from the wreckage of our house in the northern suburb of Moil was one of total devastation. Any tree still standing was like a weird lime-green scuplture having been totally stripped of all of its leaves and bark. Everywhere the ground was completely pock-marked with large holes made by roofing timber cart wheeling through the suburbs during the night. Large sheets of roofing iron were wrapped like paper around any structure still standing. Ceiling fans were imbedded into cars and houses and caught high up in telegraph poles. The windscreen of the family car was laying in the front yard with out a scratch having been popped out of its seals due to the air pressure. You can only appreciate what exactly a cyclone like Tracy does when you are actually there.

[@louise8001]

My parents and I had left Darwin two days before the cyclone hit to spend Christmas with my dad's family in Adelaide. My dad asked for a work transfer, and we relocated to Woomera. Before we relocated, we returned to Darwin to collect our belongings, not that there was much left. I was 11 months old,so I only knew what my parents told me.

[@richardverren8121]

My Dad flew home from Darwin to Sydney for Christmas eve with us and 2 days later he flew back to find it devastated by Cyclone Tracy. His business partner had died and whilst identifying his friend at the fish co-op freezers, he told us that he first selected him from thousands of polaroid photos of victims that lined the walls of the building.

[@nancycurtis7315]

My ex lived in Darwin. His housemate was a volunteer guide for Darwin. He had been trapped in the toilet cubicle for two days before rescued. There is a recorded soundtrack, in a blackout room, at real sound levels. He took me in. He lasted about 15 seconds, before he HAD to get out. I lasted about 60, before I got out. Was too much. I had never experienced mind overload before. I wasn't even in the event. Claustrophobic, dark, trapped, die????? No water, except what is in toilet tank. No flush......the survivors were heroes.

[@natp3408]

My Mum said it is the worst sound she has ever heard, the roof ripped off her house while she was huddled in her bath tub with her dog howling. She couldn't go into that room at the museum, just hearing it from outside the door she started shaking.

[@nancycurtis7315]

@natp3408 Thank you for replying. Unless you have lived through something, trying to imagine it it, your brain just can not imagine it. You try, but my brain shut down during just a sound track. My total respect for those that stayed, rebuilding Darwin. I stand in awe.

[@juanitatabe7472]

I can’t do that room. We spent the night in the car under the house after the roof went

[@daelrance6866]

I can not even get into the door of the building.

[@mystmagyk3101]

As someone who lived through Tracy, here are a few points that you mentioned or asked about. Houses up on stilts were NOT because of worry about flooding, but because it allowed for more of a breeze. Back in 1974 just about all houses had the overhead fans, but the most people had was one portable airconditioner. (usually stuck in a window) The first I remember hearing about Tracy was about 3-4pm on Christmas Eve, and the wind started to get scary around 10-11pm. My family came out of hiding about 6am on Christmas morning. Around a week prior to Tracy, we were all warned about Cyclone Selena that was expected to hit Darwin. My family prepared for it, but it veered off, so when the news of Tracy came, I know of no-one who thought it would really happen. I can vividly remember that my mother told me to sweep and mop the floors so the house would be ready for Christmas, and I jokingly complained about it because "The floors weren't going to be there after Tracy hit" Although a LOT of things were lost or damaged by the wind, just as much was lost due to water damage. Not just the rain and sea spray at the time, but because Darwin is so tropical, anything that wasn't immediately and completely dried out would suffer from mould damage within 24-48 hours. People were in too much shock to think about airing out their clothes, bedding etc. and by the time they did it was too late.

[@sandgroperwookiee65]

You've gotta remember it's 1974 Ryan. We didnt even have colour tv yet. Communication wasn't anything like it is today.

[@JB-vd8bi]

We were converting to colour TV. But you're right. The alarm was raised via ham radio

[@audreydoyle5268]

​@@JB-vd8bi they probably meant their house didn't have colour yet

[@neumanmachine3781]

@@audreydoyle5268very few people had a colour tv at the time- only test broadcasts were in colour at that time. Australia’s small population at the time made it difficult and expensive to roll out new technologies and we were very late in adopting colour tv. It wasn’t adopted until a few months later in 1975 but even then it took years until most people had a colour television set- we didn’t get ours until 1977 and we were by no means the last to get one.

[@natp3408]

My parents were there. They were in the bathroom with their dog. Afterwards, the only part of their house that survived was the bathroom. My mum still has some trauma from the moment the roof ripped off. My Dad was almost skewered by corrugated iron. They were newly-weds at the time. 😬

[@natp3408]

They still live there. And I spent my first 17 years there. It was re-built to withstand cyclones. I remember having to evacuate a few times when I was a kid but never experienced anything like Tracy

[@suzyfarnham3165]

The noise from corrugated iron is deafening and piercing. Worst noise ever, Then after it comes off it becomes a projectile that whistles' as it spears through the air. A high pitches scream,

[@AusMarineRobotics]

@@suzyfarnham3165 Only someone who was there can know how terrifying and loud a cyclone like that sounds.

[@jayweb51]

Darwin's population at the time was 45,000, over 30,000 people were evacuated after Tracy hit. It became the largest peacetime disaster relief operation by the Royal Australian Navy, which involved 13 ships, 11 aircraft and around 3,000 personnel; in almost all cases wind was the dominant factor sensing structural damage with 94% of housing uninhabitable, approximately 40,000 people were homeless necessitating 80% of the population being evacuated. The evacuees were flown to Brisbane, Sydney or Adelaide and were housed on defence force bases. By May 1975, Darwin's population had recovered somewhat, with 30,000 residing in the city.

[@aussieragdoll4840]

NFSA is the National Film and Sound Archive. It is government funded and saves news reels, news events etc for future generations to be able to access and to hear or see.

[@nigelaubrey7743]

We were digging trenches and laying high voltage cables in Darwin about 2 years ago. We dug into a couple of massive pits in the ground that were filled with asbestos sheeting from old buildings. Talking to some old guys we realised the history of what we'd dug into. The holes were bomb craters from the WW2 bombing of Darwin and the asbestos sheeting was debris from cyclone Tracey. The old guys were using dozers for cleaning up after the cyclone and pushing the asbestos into the bomb craters to try and make their lives easier.

[@WildBohoGal]

You were so close to tears on and off throughout this and as an Aussie girl myself I appreciate you more and more that you reacted so to our tragedy ❤️xx

[@joanneginever1890]

I worked with a young woman back in the 90s here in Perth who was named Tracey. She was born in Darwin during the cyclone. Her family moved down to settle in Perth after the cyclone. Must have been an incredible experience for her poor mother 😳

[@SH-qs7ee]

I think I remember hearing that story before, amazing to think how tough a person can truly be if they have to. I couldn't even begin to imagine how you could do something like that.

[@suemontague3151]

It was absolutely devastating more than 71 lives were lost and 80% of the city destroyed 😢

[@ricklorimer9984]

The real death toll was over 300. Maybe well over 300. Basically, only white residents of the city itself were counted. Indigenous people who lived outside town were ignored.

[@suzyfarnham3165]

My parents bred dogs and were close friends with the coroner. Believe me when I say there were A LOT more than that. There WERE mass Graves as Indonesian fishermen and unknowns were found and had to be buried QUICKLY because of the heat and lack of electricity.

[@neomortalgirl]

71 lives in that area is a large part if the community who is affected too. We are not populated like the US so that number is huge for us.

[@shannonmckay675]

My dad was a kid when he went through cyclone Tracy. They were lucky and were one of the houses still left standing. Somehow my Nanna slept through alot of the cyclone. If you ever end up in Darwin go to the museum there's a cyclone Tracy exhibition that has a room you can stand in and hear the sounds of the cyclone as it happened, I've been to it more times than I can remember but it's still crazy to hear it every time. There's also some twisted metal outside a school still to this day as a reminder of Tracy. Darwin is an amazing place full of amazing people, true aussie town. 🙂

[@daelrance6866]

Those twisted power poles are amazing to see, considering it was wind that did that to them. I can not even get inside the door of the museum, even today.

[@andrewhall9175]

The houses are on stilts as a form of heat mitigation. Creates airflow. It’s hot year round in Darwin

[@antheabrouwer3258]

Stilts were actually built to make houses over the flood lines when flooding happened..

[@antheabrouwer3258]

Hi. Stilts were created to make houses above the flooding..

[@Daman2287]

@@antheabrouwer3258 youve never been to darwin theres only one section that floods

[@robertthomson1587]

I remember as a small child watching the TV news of Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day. Or possibly it was on Boxing Day. Whenever the first images were broadcast to the rest of Australia. My father and mother were both crying and holding hands on the sofa. It left an indelible impression on me.

[@davejohncole]

My family lived in Darwin when Tracy hit. I was nearly 12. We were luckily not there at the time due to being in Bali on holiday. I have kind of taken it all in stride for nearly 50 years now, but your comment made me cry.

[@starry_cat616]

Last Christmas there was 2 small cyclones in the Gold Coast (queensland) not as destructive and damaging but 2 people, died thousands of houses lost there roofs. There were trees everywhere on the roads and in houses even gum trees that are very sturdy. Some trees even through through metal road barriers. And there were 100s of 1000s of houses that didn’t have power for weeks.

[@starry_cat616]

Not saying this compares to Tracy just saying somthing that happened

[@ChristopherJewels]

From Bom: "Warnings were issued, but perhaps because it was Christmas eve, and perhaps because no severe cyclone had affected Darwin imany years - many residents were caught unprepared. But even had there been perfect compliance, the combination of extremely powerful winds, and the loose design of many buildings at that time, was such that wholesale destruction was probably inevitable anyway. Forty-nine people were killed in the city and a further sixteen perished at sea."

[@ChristopherJewels]

They were both tornadoes not tropical cyclones. But yes, there were probably several tornadoes embedded in the eyewall of Tracy, so you know all too well the result. I saw the result first hand in January and it looked like someone had thrown a bomb or a few hand grenades amongst the trees and buildings. There was also a tornado near Lowood the same day.

[@jayrandall9075]

My brother was in Perth on leave from the Navy, he was called, with others on leave, to fly to Darwin and help with the recovery. He said he’d never seen such devastation, all the while sifting through broken homes in search of bodies. Houses are built on stilts for cooling and possible flooding during the monsoon months, much like the homes in Indonesia. Darwin and the top end (as we call it) experiences extreme weather conditions. 😮

[@competitionglen]

Bangladesh, one of the most impoverished country in the world raised a lot 9f m9ney to help rebuilding. Aussies dont forget their mates. I was 2 months old when cyclone Tracey hit, instead of unwrapping Christmas presents, Darwin were unwrapping their homes.

[@TheLargino]

The effects of Tracy were still visible when we moved to Darwin in the early 80's. There were many flat platforms of the old Above Ground houses on vacant blocks scattered throughout the suburbs of Nightcliff, Rapid Creek, Milner, Jingili and Alawa. A current reminder of Tracy is a memorial "sculpture" of a twisted steel power pole in front of Casuarina Secondary College.

[@KarinaBarley]

I still have a photo I took of that sculpture. The winds were so powerful that I saw a drinking straw embedded in a tree.

[@BeatWittwer-x8p]

I was in the army in Townsville when Tracy struck. We were the second plane in, 15 hours after the all clear. After clearing the runway thoroughly we started looking for survivors under the rubble. Stretton was on the spot within hours .... a true leader ! We were there for 24 days organising the evacuation that was a superbly well organised and rapid dome. Most were flown out and some went by road. From memory we got 25,000 out within 3-4 days despite all the infrastructure being destroyed. Many refused to leave and it took some convincing to get them to go.... no water, power and food convinced the most stubborn after a few says.

[@judithstrachan9399]

Did Stretton end up becoming GG?

[@JeepDraw]

@@judithstrachan9399 No, He did his studies in law after Darwin. Stretton was jointly named the 1975 Australian of the Year, with Sir John Cornforth. He wrote The Furious Days: The Relief of Darwin (1976) and Soldier in the Storm (1978), retiring from public life in 1978. He practiced law in Canberra into his 70s. In 1999, in only his second visit to the city of Darwin since Cyclone Tracy, he presented his insignia as Officer of the Order of Australia, and his award as Australian of the Year, to the people of Darwin. He died on 26 October 2012 at Batemans Bay Hospital in New South Wales, aged 90 I was in the Army when Tracy hit Darwin, on leave. awaiting discharge. I wasn't recalled..

[@judithstrachan9399]

@@JeepDraw Thanks. I think I was thinking of Peter Cosgrove. Not sure why.

[@JeepDraw]

@@judithstrachan9399 Peter was a Captain when Tracy hit Darwin.

[@JeepDraw]

@@judithstrachan9399 A slight mix up in Cyclones perhaps.... Tracy and Larry.. On 23 March 2006, Cosgrove was selected to lead the Queensland Government taskforce of rebuilding communities damaged by Cyclone Larry, a Category 5 tropical cyclone that devastated the Innisfail region of northern Queensland. "In recognition of the important contribution General Cosgrove made to the community of North Queensland following Cyclone Larry", on 11 October 2008, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced that a new residential suburb in the Bohle Plains area of Townsville would be named Cosgrove.

[@peterolsen9131]

at the same time as tracy [ christmas 1974] , i was a boy in the bribane floods [ worst in memory] it was a crazy weather year, brisbane floods were massive , we had many neighbors and rellies stay with us as we were blessed with high ground in chelmer , but the other side of the rail tracks houses were under several feet of water over their roofs as far as the eye could see!

[@judithstrachan9399]

We were visiting rellies. The day after we left Dads brother at Coopers Plains to go to Mums sister in Nundah, (via Indooroopilly cos the other bridges were out) the house was underwater.

[@CQuinnLady]

I was 9y.o living in sydney nsw. I remember Tracey well. Notknowing the size of oz, i asked my parents if we coulddrive up so i could give them my toys. Tracy was horrendous in the fact it passed thru, then came back. Once was enough, but twice, leveled the place.

[@suzyfarnham3165]

I didn't come back. It was the eye. It raged on for hours and then the eye hit. We all emerged from out hiding spaces KNOWING the rest war coming so scrambled to find wall insulation and anything we could find to protect us. Many on the RAAF BASE WHO HAD ALREADY LOST homes ran for the Base jail to seek shelter. ...the rest of us hunkered down as the storm raged until dawn. The was talk it had gone past and was coming back but that was just gossip. THANK GOD! aLL WE HAD A A SINGLE 10 FOOT Besser block wall downstairs...which we were jammed against...upstairs as a single built in wardrobe pierced with corrugated iron. Dad had first thought to get us in the bathroom and use matresses ..Thank God he didn't our bathroom was gone. Mum wanted us in the laundry..which was 4 walls as Besser block. We sat against that wall and listened as 3 of them collapsed leaving only part of that wall for us to sit against. You will never know the terror of sitting on a wall that was moving back and forward..we were just waiting for it to fall.

[@maree564]

The town didnt evacuate as they didnt head the warning. Residents of Darwin were celebrating Christmas, and they did not immediately acknowledge the emergency, partly because they had been alerted to an earlier cyclone (Selma) which passed west of the city, not affecting it in any way. Additionally, news outlets had only a skeleton crew on duty over the holiday.

[@lgh2052]

I was a kid in Townsville Christmas eve 1971 when Cyclone Althea hit & I've never forgotten the shrieking noise of the wind & watching the neighbours homes being damaged & ripped apart. We were in a new built home a few years later when Tracey hit Darwin, my Mum began packing boxes & boxes of clothing & household goods to add to the shipment of supplies that were sent from Townsville to Darwin. We all really felt for you sharing a similar traumatic experience & seeing how total the devastation was. People didn't evacuate back then, so it was incredible more people weren't lost 😞

[@suzyfarnham3165]

Dad was RAAF and we were in Althea AND Tracey!

[@lgh2052]

​@@suzyfarnham3165 both such traumatic events & Tracey was so much worse. Extremely traumatic for your family 😞

[@ThePreston34]

I’m from Adelaide and I remember In Adelaide we were Asked if we could volunteer to pick up families from the airport, and host them in our houses until things were sorted out. Government support the volunteers and the families.

[@sharnaeks7800]

My great uncle was in Darwin for Cyclone Tracy - I remember reading books about it and hearing this story. He was drunk and asleep in his bathtub- he slept through a lot of it. He missed a lot of trauma based on that.

[@infin8ee]

My uncle was responsible for some of the clean-up after this(can't remember his title) and stayed there afterwards while his wife/,kids came to family in NSW. I was really young at the time and thought my cousin's were really cool because they had been put into the bathtub for safety and had been blown out of the house into the neighbours yard. The oldest broke her collarbone and the other had cuts and bruises. Unbelievably lucky. All we concerned ourselves with was the unfair fact that they'd lost all of their Christmas presents. As an adult I am amazed that anyone made it out.

[@matthewcullen1298]

This bought about a lot of changes in the way we now build in Australia. My good mate Is a carpenter in Darwin now. We used to work together building homes and factories in NSW and Queensland. It's insane how strong the new homes are

[@kevinbrian3244]

I was home on leave and recalled to my ship HMAS Melbourne. Special flight back to Sydney and the next day we sailed as part of the Navy Operation Help Relief Team. We helped clean up until late January. We provided comms and became the fire brigade as well.

[@davejohncole]

I was almost 12 years old when Tracy went through Darwin. Our house was mostly undamaged with only half of one of my bedroom walls missing. Every house around ours was levelled. Fortunately we were not in Darwin at the time. We were in Bali on holiday. All of our neighbours sheltered in our house when the eye passed over. Some bizarre things... One of my friends from school slept through it. Our next door neighbour has one of those flimsy above ground swimming pools that collapse when there is no water in it. The next day it was still standing, but completely empty. Oh. In case you have not read so far. There was no evacuation. Christmas Eve was when you went to parties and got blind drunk. From memory the population was about 40k to 45k people. Can't exactly remember.

[@leeclews7731]

It was 1974. 47000 residents. Over 30000 evacuated, 70% of buildings including 80% homes destroyed. Many never returned. My Aunty and 6 year old cousin were visiting Darwin and could not get out in time. They spent the period of the cyclone in an upstairs toilet, with 5 others. Fortunately, they all survived. The house was destroyed around them.

[@suzyfarnham3165]

My Mum vowed to NEVER return to the tropics and never went back. When Dad got out of the RAAF and they retired to build their own home on the Sunshine Coast..Mum had cyclone shutters installed!! She would never step foot again.

[@Kayenne54]

Honestly, the number of times the homes were dismantled around people, you'd have to believe in divine protection.

[@shaneb4612]

It's not dark or morbid humour, it's just Aussie humour. Many Aussies rolled up their sleeves & got to work. There was a butt load of donations & food/water sent to aid in the recovery. Over the years I've heard some crazy stories of survival. A man & woman hid in a bath tub, only for the thing to be lifted off the floor. Raised 6 foot in to the air, only to be slammed back to the now open air bathroom floor. They said it was the scariest thing they have been through. They said they will never forget the noises. Whenever a storm brews up, they have major anxiety.

[@andrewhall9175]

Cyclones spin in the opposite direction to hurricanes because of the different hemispheres. That’s the only difference

[@Mediawatcher2023]

hes a yank all he knows is school shootings

[@shaneb4612]

Yes. Cyclones spin anticlockwise & Hurricanes spin clockwise.

[@unoriginalsyn]

And on the equator you have typhoons which can spin either way 👍

[@andrewhall9175]

@@unoriginalsyn That’s cool

[@Aurochhunter]

True, some people will nitpick over details, but as a rule of thumb: cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons are just different names for the same thing.

[@rosmeeker1964]

Houses in the north are elevated for ventilation. It cuts down on mold and such. In regard to warnings- warnings come a lot earlier these days of satellite forecasts.

[@stevegraham3817]

Cyclone - South Pacific, Typhoon - North Pacific, and Hurricane - Atlantic, are just regional names for the same type of weather system. They all form when the sea temperatures get above 26degC / 80degF.

[@petert24turner71]

I had some work friends who were there at the time. They were amateur radio buffs & managed to establish the first radio communication after the event. God bless them.

[@istp1967]

Hurricanes spin in the opposite direction to cyclones -- hurricanes, Northern hemisphere, spin Anticlockwise. Cyclones, Southern hemisphere, spin Clockwise.

[@-sandman4605]

Houses where on stilts for air flow because is so bloody hot and humid. I remember Tracey like it was yesterday, lots of people never returned & started a new life in Perth and other cities, I went to school with two kids that relocated south of Perth & you could see the damage mentally it had on them. Australia has never seen another like Tracey.

[@gailstevens6831]

I had a friend who was moving to Darwin to teach in 1975. She arrived 2 days after Tracey hit. She stayed in the Travel Lodge in a 4th floor room, with no windows and a car in the pool. Her suitcases were never found. 5 years later I moved to Darwin to teach blind and visually impaired children. They all stayed in Darwin during Tracey and they were all terrified whenever the threat of cyclones were mentioned. They told me stories of what it was like for them - they were terrified, as the noises were something they had never experienced before. The impression I got from people was that their life were Pre Tracey and Post Tracey. Life was never going to be the same after Tracey.

[@intooz4692]

We changed sheltering locations in our house as the place blew apart.Mum rescued our Christmas presents presents

[@perryschafer5996]

I was in Sydney when Tracy hit Darwin. Elements of my Army Reserve unit were tasked in the following days with organising and distributing all the tons of clothing, bedding and food that was collected from Sydney residents, to the evacuees and wounded that had been flown in from Darwin. We also transported people to their accommodation. Some had relatives to go to. Others were welcomed into the homes of strangers. Never been more proud to be Australian than I was at witnessing the open heartedness of my community at that time.

[@AussieTVMusic]

I was 11 when Tracey hit. I gave my Mum $1 to give to the Cyclone fundraiser. I remember it like yesterday.

[@suemontague3151]

Yep we call it standing 🧍‍♀️ by your mates

[@amygone2pot]

It’s is one of those events when everyone (every Australian) remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the terrible news. I was 15 and I felt so guilty knowing our family had been having so much fun that day while the people of Darwin were going through this.

[@kaz1578]

True. I lived in Sydney and even though we were not directly impacted, everyone felt the pain. I remember doing through wardrobes etc, getting things to donate to families that lost everything. There were massive clothing and homewares collection points and people brought all anything that could be used. People donated toys to the children who had lost everything. Money was given to help with reconstruction or resettlement. Many men went north to help to do what ever they could to restore basis infrastructure. Aussies all pull together in difficult times.

[@PinkyVelox]

Yep. I remember seeing it on the News as a kid. I had nightmares about it for ages. Absolutely Terrifying.

[@user-Auscat]

My husband's uncle was in the defense force at the time. They were not allowed to leave base when the cyclone hit. His wife and 2 kids were at home and died when Tracy hit :(

[@fayedoherty2133]

My brother, his wife and 2 babies lived in Darwin at the time. They took shelter in the downstairs laundry room which had solid concrete walls. They put the babies in a cupboard, put a mattress over the glass window in the door, braced their backs against the cupboard and feet against the door. A few times when the wind died down briefly they peeked out and saw total destruction. At one stage a boat wizzed past the house several metres off the ground. When it was all over they had to force their way out through rubble, they found the wreckage of the house and other peoples piled around their shelter, one of the few things still standing in their street. My brother was a plumber and ventilation engineer with the RAAF, he was seconded to the emergency relief and rebuilding team. His family were evacuated to Adelaide until the city was liveable again. He spent months restoring water and electricity supply to remote outposts and towns, his hand was crushed and spine injured in a river crossing when a water tank broke loose and rolled over him.

[@keelover6914]

It a fairly normal standard of Australian housing for your house to be in stilts because of frequent flash floods and the extra air flow for cooling in the summer

[@marionthompson3365]

Evacuated Darwin residents were sent to stay in homes right across Australia. We had three families in our street in Sydney with evacuees for many months. It was an enormous and successful operation. Was a terrible couple of years with so many tragedies. Cyclone Tracy was so much worse because it happened on Christmas Eve, early Christmas day. Imagine for a moment the impact that had on families with young children and the lost gifts that many struggle to afford. Still brings me to tears after all these years.

[@Kayenne54]

It would have been the best Christmas gift ever to survive and all your children survive, unharmed. Though I knew people who were still traumatized years later.

[@stick0035]

Santa Never Made it to Darwin by: Bill & Boyd

[@bodybalanceU2]

werent they a kiwi duo from the 60s and 70s

[@XtraSparklesPls]

😢 We had to learn that song in Primary School in the 80s.

[@swordbrotherplatt9392]

I remember my poppa singing that song.

[@stuartmcquade3407]

Thanks I remember that song very clearly but had forgotten who sang it

[@lozinozz7567]

I still sing that around Xmas. Bit of a tradition 😊

[@heatherlane9270]

'Wild Moths of Darwin' by Noel Harley gives a great account of his personal experience going through the cyclone - he, his wife and children lost everything including their brand new home of a couple of days. Noel was my second husband and our marriage his second.

[@miniveedub]

Darwin has two seasons, the wet and the dry. It’s tropical, hot and humid year round. The houses were built on stilts to be cooler, to allow air to circulate around them and to provide a dry, undercover area underneath them. They usually had louvre windows as well so they could be left tilted open to let air circulate during the rain that falls every day in the wet.

[@davidparris7167]

I left Darwin a week before this happened. I feel extremely lucky to have missed this disaster. I went back in 1978 and the whole town had been rebuilt.

[@Tidus0p]

My mum had a girl join them in the new year for school, her family was from Darwin and her parents sent her to Adelaide to stay with her relatives. When cyclone Tracy happened, thousands of people left and many didn’t return.

[@Deeb390]

My brother and his wife had only just moved there and had to be evacuated by plane. They lost everything. But they eventually moved back and built a life and raised their family. Darwin is a lovely place to visit now. Lots of history -Darwin even got bombed during ww2. Over 200 people were killed. Thank you for looking at its history.

[@downunderveggiegardendiaries]

I was born in November 1974 in Sydney. In the mid 80’s we were living in a small southern NSW town and it was near Christmas and some neighbour kids were telling us that Santa wasn’t real, I said he was real he was a real man a long time ago (ie St Nicholas), the other neighbour kids agreed but said that he was real but died in Cyclone Tracy in Darwin on Christmas Day years before. There was a song we knew and the lyrics were ‘Santa never made it to Darwin. The big wind came and blew him away’. So they said he was dead. Confused I went inside and told Mum and she had to explain about Cyclone Tracy.

[@anthonymay1862]

My cousin moved up to Darwin on 24th December 1974 (rather bad timing as Tracy hit the town between 0330 - 0630 Christmas morning). Laundry was built under the raised house slab and the bathroom was directly above it. All the new houses were built at ground level and were solid brick and concrete (even the roofing was doubled layered galvanized iron with 4 inch concrete sandwiched between). I was Serving in the RAAF at the time and was in a repair crew of Linemen reconstructing Lee Point Receiving and the 11 Mile Transmission Stations.

[@suzyfarnham3165]

So many were killed in those designs as the walls parted and that slab fell. Dad and his men took heavy equipment to get people out from under the slabs.

[@AusMarineRobotics]

The Cyclone was starting to be felt during the mid evening of the 24th but destructive winds didnt start until around midnight. From memory the eye would have crossed Darwin around 2AM after which the winds obliterated everything and continued until dawn when roofing iron was no longer flying through the air and we were able to safely emerge from the wreckage of our house. The wind was still strong though and I remember the rain stinging my legs and my parents nervously watching out for any flying debri as we joined our neighbours at the only house in our street that was still standing.

[@bluedog1052]

You probably got the same amount of notice for a hurricane as we did for a cyclone in 1974, in this day and age we have the technology to forecast much further into the future whether they develop or not, buildings have specific requirements in those prone areas and everyone has a survival kit or should at least.

[@Cam111100]

When I was in Darwin there was a museum about Cyclone Tracy. There was a room you could go into that played the noises of the Cyclone like crumpling metal and howling of the wind and everything crashing about. They play it at the it was like to live through it. Scary stuff.

[@needaman66]

If your last name is was, your nick name would be Wassa. There was a song written about Tracy. Tracy, tracy was angry...a bad mood, a bad mood... Even then we were practising cyclone tie down systems in building. It was particularly violent cyclone

[@yvonnecaldwell6088]

I was 12 when Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin and living in Perth, nowhere near Darwin. Everyone was shocked, it was on the news all day, on every channel most Christmas programs and movies were cancelled. We didn't turn it off., it was devastating. I remember all the Christmas decs, wrapping paper and toys strewn everywhere amongst the destruction. Steel girders bent in half. It brought the country to a halt. 50 years later, this Christmas and I still can't watch footage of that day, without tearing up. It affected us all, I can't even fathom what it would've been like to live through.😪😪Bill and Boyd brought out a song 'Santa Never Made it into Darwin' and all the proceeds were donated. It went straight to #1.

[@jesamindee6783]

Cyclone Tracy built up and moved very fast towards Darwin, the only had a few hours notice, there was no time to evacuate no time to really prepare, just shelter and hope for the best!

[@KarinaBarley]

I went to Darwin straight after the cyclone as my dad was an electrician and helped with building the new cyclone proof houses. We lived in a caravan next to a house with no roof. My brother and I spent our days searching through the rubble of the houses - it was so sad to see washed out photos. Toys, clothes etc. I was told that there was only a few hours warning and so no one was able to evacuate. There’s only one road in and out of Darwin & it’s at the top end of Aus so extremely isolated. It still has a small population because of that same reason. The houses were on stilts because of air circulation keeping the houses cooler. Not all houses had air con back then. It’s a miracle only 70 were killed, although there was speculation that many transients may have died (not sure if that’s true).

[@debkendall]

They didnt evacuate before the cyclone - it was xmas eve and the whole town was gone.

[@donnabarns5327]

After the cyclone they evacuated women and children out if Darwin and billeted them in homes across Australia. I was 12 and the neighbours took in a little boy named Tony who was six and we became friends. He stayed for.about 6 months before he could go home.

[@jody-annesullivan4547]

My father was in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) and was transferred solo to Darwin on an emergency posting to assist with the cleanup. I was born in Darwin, and was 8 when this happened, can remember seeing footage on the news Christmas Day & feeling ‘very big feelings’. Mum, and us kids stayed in NSW where dad had been stationed at the time with grandparents and by December 1975 we moved up there onto the Darwin RAAF base housing. Yes the houses were on stilts, with metal X cyclone bracing on each end, in the centre downstairs was a cinderblock laundry room. On the base after cleanup, the majority of ‘homes’ were just the stilts, stairs, laundry and floor - an occasional toilet bowl remaining. Stilts were for airflow and outdoor patio situation, not flooding, Darwin is in the tropics. Streets had 3 or 4 homes repaired, others just the stilts, others completely demolished vacant block. We lived in a caravan lashed to the cyclone bracing for a few months while the final repairs were made to our house. By the time we transferred out in 1978 more houses were built, but it was still pretty wild. Dad didn’t really say anything to us about the cleanup, but in my 30’s we were chatting and it came up. He described it as apocalyptic, found a severed forearm, many many dead animals or fatally injured, trapped under debris, that needed to be put down, a fridge blown into a water tower, he said the heat & humidity was suffocating and the smell was unlike anything he could describe. The metal is roofing.

[@lauriedmills7581]

I remember clearly the Christmas paper among the rubble at 6 years old. Our family had moved from Darwin not long before Tracey but just afterwards we went there for some reason (my dad’s work I think) and since seeing what the “big wind” was capable of I’m still twitchy 50 years later about strong wind. Many people have commented about their first-hand experience of Tracey and my heart goes out to you. Scary stuff.

[@wolfyowiefae1754]

Nobody expected it, all reports had said the cyclone was heading north away from Australia. Then suddenly very late Christmas Eve they realised that against all odds the cyclone had reversed direction and picked up speed. There was basically no time to evacuate. Everyone thought it was dissipating and heading north and then it swapped direction and then increased in intensity. No one was ready

[@aussieragdoll4840]

The PM of the day (Gough Whitlam) was on holidays in Italy. By the end of Christmas Day, he had appointed Major General Stretton to head the recovery & rebuild team & was on his way back to Australia to see for himself. Major Stretton & the military started arriving that same day. Remember… this was before mobile phones, before direct subscriber dialing… all international calls were dine via the International telephone exchange. Compare Gough’s actions with the inaction of #ScumMo. #ScumMo KNEW large swathes of the country was in fire, but he still chose to go to Hawaii on holidays with the family, and made ZERO effort to return home early when there was massive destruction and loss of life. I can guarantee you, if the PM of Australia needed to return to Australia during a disaster… Qantas or Jetstar (Qantas’ low cost subsidiary) would have found him a seat. Even if they had to bump someone off the flight to do it. Major Stretton had all the women & children evacuated to southern states during the rebuild.

[@miniveedub]

Gough Whitlam cared about people, the other narcissistic, waste of space cares only for himself.

[@jessbellis9510]

Not only did Scummo go on holidays, he went in secret because he _knew_ people would be disgusted and pissed. Then he had the Prime Minister's Office LIE about his whereabouts until people found proof on social media that he was in Hawaii, and then he lied and said he'd "return immediately" but only cut his vacation short by less than a day. Then he posted a facebook status about the fires, telling everyone they could "donate to help bushfire victims" but the link he included was just a donation to the Liberal Party. Absolutely disgusting POS who should be in jail for treason.

[@BeatWittwer-x8p]

A minor correction.... Whitlam was inb the air on the way to Europe. He immediately ordered the plane to turn around and he was back in Oz. within hours..... a little different to Scomo, away in Hawaii and waiting 48 hours as to what to do !

[@56music64]

Yes men back then were real men. as was Clem Jones the ex Mayor of Brisbane. Gough knew he was a Get Things Done man so Clem was appointed Chairman of the Darwin Reconstruction Authority. Reconstruction happened relatively quickly. once that happened.

[@rhonda-qc6qy]

ScuMo earned his title. Dutton is earning his.