Cyclone Tracy

Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated Darwin, Australia, from December 24 to December 25, 1974. It was recorded by The Age as being a "disaster of the first magnitude...without parallel in Australia's history." It killed 65 people and destroyed over 70 percent of Darwin's buildings, leaving over 20,000 people homeless. Most of Darwin's population was evacuated to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney, and many never returned to Darwin. The town was subsequently rebuilt with modern materials and techniques. Cyclone Tracy was at least a Category 4 storm, although there is evidence to suggest that it had reached Category 5 when it made landfall at Darwin.

Prelude to the storm

Darwin had been severely battered by cyclones before, in January 1897 and again in March 1937. However, in the 20 years leading up to Cyclone Tracy, the city had undergone a period of rapid expansion. E.P. Milliken estimated that on the eve of the cyclone there were 43,500 people living in 12,000 dwellings in the Darwin area. Though building standards required that some attention be given to the possibility of cyclones, most buildings were not capable of withstanding the force of a cyclone's direct hit.

Related Topics:
1897 - 1937

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On the day of the cyclone, most residents of Darwin believed that the cyclone would not cause any damage to the city. Cyclone Selma had been predicted to hit Darwin earlier in the month but went north and dissipated. Cyclone Tracy therefore took most Darwin residents by surprise. Journalist Bill Bunbury interviewed the residents of Darwin some time later and recorded the experiences of the survivors of the cyclone in his book Cyclone Tracy, picking up the pieces. Resident Dawn Lawrie, a 1971 independent candidate for the electorate of Nightcliff, told him:

Related Topics:
Cyclone Selma - Nightcliff

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"We'd had a cyclone warning only 10 days before Tracy was coming, it was coming, and it never came. So when we started hearing about Tracy we were all a little blasé." (Bunbury, p. 20)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Another resident, Barbara James, said:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"And you started to almost think that it would never happen to Darwin even though had cyclone warnings on the radio all the time ... most of the people who had lived here for quite some time didn't really believe the warnings." (Bunbury, p. 21)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~