Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Solomon for putting this motion forward and for her contribution. We do not agree a lot of the time, but on this I agree absolutely with her. Her contribution was a very good summation of the events that surrounded Cyclone Tracy and after and I think does justice to those who worked so hard and to those who sacrificed.

Bruce Stannard in The Age on 28 December 1974 said of Cyclone Tracy that it was 'a disaster of the first magnitude, without parallel in Australia's history'. We now know subsequently that 71 people were killed, and damage was estimated at $800 million in 1974 prices. The most compact cyclone on record in Australia destroyed in excess of 70 per cent of buildings and 80 per cent of all housing, leaving 41,000 of 45,000 people homeless, and led to the evacuation of more than 30,000 people.

We have heard the story about how it happened. First identified as a significant cloud mass on 20 December 1974, it was tracked by the Bureau of Meteorology staff, including Ray Wilkie and Geoff Crane. Mr Crane issued the first alert on 21 December as 'a tropical low that could develop into a tropical cyclone'. By 10 pm that night, it was officially pronounced as a tropical cyclone, 700 kilometres north-east of Darwin. On 22 December, it moved south-west, passing north-west of Darwin. On 23 December, the ABC, quoting the Bureau of Meteorology, said there was 'no immediate threat to Darwin'. However, in the early morning of the 24th, Tracy rounded Cape Fourcroy on the western tip of Bathurst Island and headed south-east directly at Darwin. There was strong rain and increasing wind, with the first damage beginning to occur between 10 pm and midnight.

It was generally believed that the first building destroyed was the famous—or some might say infamous—weatherboard-constructed Seabreeze Hotel at Nightcliff, commemorated today by the very popular Nightcliff Seabreeze Festival, held on the Nightcliff foreshore in April of each year. The eye of the cyclone passed between Fannie Bay and Nightcliff at around 3.30 am on 25 December. It tore through the town and then returned an hour later for another go. 1974—what a momentous year!

The anemometer at Darwin airport, as the member for Solomon has said, was destroyed at 3.10 am. The last wind speed recorded was 217 kilometres per hour, but the Bureau of Meteorology's official estimates suggest gusts reached 240 kays an hour. Darwin had been damaged, as the member for Solomon has said already, by previous cyclones in 1897 and 1937 and was largely destroyed by the 64 Japanese aircraft raids in 1942 and 1943.

On Christmas Eve, Darwin style, people were celebrating as they do. Many remained all night in the pubs where they had been drinking, as the winds were too strong to return home. Dawn Lawrie, a famous Northern Territory person and mother of the current leader of the ALP in the Northern Territory, said:

We'd had a cyclone warning only 10 days before Tracy [that another …] was coming, it was coming, and it never came. So when we started hearing about Tracy we were all a little blase.

Another resident, Barbara Langkrens, said:

And you started to almost think that it would never happen to Darwin even though we 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.

Darwin, thanks to Tracy's devastating impact, will never be so ill prepared again.

We have heard of the impact—71 dead; sadly, some say there were far more than that, especially so-called long-grassers who may have been without shelter that dreadful and awful night. You can hear the late Bishop Ted Collins's recording of the noise of the incredible winds at the Darwin museum's excellent Cyclone Tracy display, a truly chilling reminder of that hideous night. Most of Darwin's 12,000 dwellings were either destroyed or severely damaged. Thirty-one aircraft were destroyed and 25 were severely damaged.

After 7 am on Christmas Day, Darwin Hospital began receiving patients. Over 500 were treated on Christmas Day, along with 112 admitted. Both operating theatres worked nonstop until the morning of Boxing Day. A surgical team arrived from Canberra around sunset on Christmas Day. The Whitlam government set up an emergency committee on Christmas Day afternoon with the arrival of the Minister for the Northern Territory, Rex Patterson, and Major General Alan Stretton, Director-General of the Natural Disasters Organisation, arrived in the early evening. Housing was in makeshift accommodation and emergency shelters. Trench latrines were dug and water deliveries were made by tankers. Emergency vaccinations began. This was a dreadful set of circumstances.

Patterson and Stretton took advice from the head of the health department, Dr Charles Gurd, that evacuation was essential. Ten thousand left on Boxing Day and the next day. Evacuation by the RAAF, Qantas, Ansett airlines and TAA continued at cost to government, including road transport to Alice Springs. One person I know who was involved in those evacuations was Fred McCue Sr, who was the manager of Ansett in the Northern Territory. Adelaide River, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs residents set up reception centres, raised money and helped people as they passed through. Between 26 December and 31 December, 35,363 people were evacuated: 26,828 by air and the remainder by road. This was, in any set of circumstances, a most horrific set of events. The government of Australia responded appropriately, but most importantly the people of the Northern Territory responded in the right way—although, sadly, many left, never to return.

Reconstruction was itself a challenge. In February of 1975 Gough Whitlam set up the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, despite calls from several conservative politicians of the day to forget and leave Darwin as a small, isolated township or move it inland. This reconstruction committee was chaired by the former Labor Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Clem Jones, and Sir Leslie Thiess and was headed up by Tony Powell. In May 1975, only eight months after work had begun, over 3,000 cyclone coded houses had been built by companies like Grollo, Barclays and others. Schools, clinics et cetera were also constructed. Prime Minister Fraser continued the reconstruction. By 1978 over 40,000 people were resident there. However, more than 60 per cent of the pre-Tracy population never went home. Of course, Malcolm Fraser granted self-government to the Northern Territory in 1978.

By the 1980s, Darwin was largely unrecognisable to the Darwin of 24 December 1974. I arrived in Darwin in the middle of 1975. It was a scene that you could never forget. When I went to live in Darwin, one of the first places that I lived in, in 1976, was a house on Bagot Road. I slept in the back room; the back room had no wall. It was an interesting place, to say the least.

The period was known for the many people who came to the Northern Territory to participate in the reconstruction. It was said that anyone who could put a nail bag on would get a job, and they did. They made a magnificent contribution to the rebuilding of Darwin and the Northern Territory. It is a tribute to them and all of those who were engaged that what we see today is the product of their work. We should never forget the sacrifices that were made but most importantly understand and remember the contributions made in that huge humanitarian operation by the Navy, the RAAF, Qantas and TAA personnel, doctors, nurses, police, public servants, construction crews, power and water teams, transport workers—they all deserve special mention. One of the people who worked during that period is a member of this parliament, the member for Leichhardt. He can tell you some interesting stories about his time in the period post-cyclone.

Many lessons have been learnt. What we know is that Mother Nature in this part of the world is incredibly dangerous and must never be underestimated. Australians in strife, we know, are indomitable and compassionate. We have proved time and time again—such as with Cyclone Althea and Cyclone Yasi in North Queensland and Black Friday in Victoria—that we know how to work together as a community and to respond for one another with great compassion, being aware of the welfare of all.

We should remember that the ABC's emergency role should never be jeopardised by funding cuts. The commitment to the North by the Whitlam government and subsequent governments should never be allowed to wither. It is a remarkable story, tragic but ultimately triumphant. Darwin's rise, phoenix-like, to the extraordinary city it is today proves it must never be forgotten. All schools should have it as part of their Australian history curriculum. I commend motion to the House.

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