Thread: Darwin 1974, just after the cyclone, and now

I was there .. 19 at the time .. being Chrissy eve and enjoying ourselves we went for drive to Porkies Spare Ribs for munchies as it was building up. I was driving, used my mates fathers Nissian Patrol (his parents were in Adelaide), with us wearing our motor cycle helmets. Porkies was open as was the servo, one of the guys jumped out and the wind took him off his feet and rolled him into the fence. At that point we knew it was serious. Backed up the Patrol and we dragged him in .. Porkies shut then so no munchies

The drive back to Stuart Park down the highway was quite frightening with sheets of corrugated iron whistling by. Once we got to the lee of the hill it was fine, for then .. power went on and off and then off and she just kept building up. Once the eye passed over it then hit us full force, windows and glass rained in on us and we spent the rest of a very long night in the bathroom and toilets. I sat in the bath, motor cycle helmet on expecting to not last the night. You can never be prepared for the noise, the wind, the breaking of timber, the roof lifting up and down .. parts ripping off, other houses parts slamming into yours, absolutely terrifying. When dawn came we thought that we maybe the only ones to survive. Outside was devastation, we seemed to be the only house with a bit still standing, end of our house was gone, lounge gone .. . i was surprised when I saw somebody else. We rescued a family next door that the walls had collapsed on .. I stayed on helping in an evacuation centre for a while and then drove south in the Nissan with a large trailer taking tools and our bikes to Adelaide. Hit a herd of beef but she limped on with the bull bar bent back on to the bonnet and eventually broke down north of Alice. A story in its own right.

Local Darwin cops were awesome, the imported ones were a mixed bag.. had a local cop drop into our centre (a school), he was visibly shaken and warned us that some of the southern cops had gone rogue, open shooting at looters. Civilisation as we know it can break down very quickly.

I worked for a Project Manager in Govt and he died, girl I went out with her father lost both his legs from corrugated iron and somehow survived with tourniquets stemming the blood flow. Its the mental problems that affected so many that people don't read about. I went thru pretty unscathed, a mate didn't and sought help for many years after breakdowns. For a long time whenever there was a big storm it would bring back the memories and I couldn't sleep. I have a brother still living there, nice place to visit but I will never live there again.

Our whole family went through cyclone Tracy. I was only 5 so old enough to remember it but probably not old enough to know how lucky we where compared to some others. It was dads Land Rover that saved us because the house got destroyed pretty well. We are currently sitting at Sydney airport to fly to Darwin for a few days for a short holiday.

Interesting read rosco8, been here 2 months and still waiting for the wet!, cool place and so much less cluttered than sydney.