Cyclone Tracy

**Cyclone Tracy** was a devastating cyclonic storm that smashed the city of Darwin, Australia in 1974.

## Background

The cyclone was first noticed and classified as a tropical storm with cyclonic potential before being classified as a cyclone and named Tracy. However initially the projected trajectory of the cyclone was going past Darwin and was therefore thought not to be a threat to the city.

## Development

Tracy was moving in a south westerly direction, passing Darwin directly north on December 22, 1974. Media reports, in particular by local radio, stated that the storm posed no threat to the city. It passed the northern side of the Tiwi Islands continuing in the south westerly direction.

However, when it passed Cape Fourcroy on the western tip of Bathurst Island (the smaller of the two main islands in the Tiwi Islands) on the morning of December 24 it changed direction from south westerly to south easterly. This put Darwin directly in it's path. The weather station at Cape Fourcroy measured the mean wind speed at that point at 120 kilometres per hour (75 miles per hour).

## Cyclone strike

The size of Tracy was small, and as December 24 progressed the clouds darkened in Darwin. Many were hoping the storm would pass either to the east or to the south. It took until late that evening for the people of Darwin to realise they were going to be directly hit.

The eye of Tracy passed through Darwin at 3:30am on December 25, 1974. The highest wind gust at Darwin Airport was 217 kilometres per hour (135 miles per hour) was a little under half an hour before the eye, but there is no record of wind gusts consequent to the eye as the wind vane failed five minutes after the recording and was destroyed. Estimates had the maximum speed at 240 kilometres per hour (150 miles per hour). An employee of the weather bureau managed to take a barometric pressure reading at 4am as the ey passed over - the reading was 950 hectopascals.

The winds began to ease as the sun rose and the rain cleared a couple of hours later. Tracy only took 24 hours after that to dissipate.

## Destruction

As the sun rose, the amount of damage that was done became obvious. However, getting the news to the rest of Australia was made difficult by the lack of communication options. A reporter for the local government radio station couldn't use said station and had to try the local television station. From there he managed to make contact with the nearest government radio station in Mount Isa, who passed to news on to the head office in Sydney. This process took until the afternoon, meaning the rest of Australia did not hear about the Christmas Day disaster until the evening news.

Acting Australian Prime Minister Jim Cairns visited the city as quickly as he could, while the actual Prime Minister Gough Whitlam cut short his Christmas holiday in Sicily to return soon afterwards. The Northern Territory at the time was heavily reliant on Canberra (it only became a self governed territory in 1978) so a committee had to be formed to respond locally to the disaster. Mass numbers of Australian Defence personnel and equipment was brought back into service from the Christmas break to help evacuate the city. Over half of the resident population had been left homeless by Tracy. Many who were evacuated never returned.

The death toll at the time was announced as 65 (this was updated in 2005 to 71 due to six people missing being re-classified as "lost at sea"). The damage was a record $837 million.

## Recovery and legacy

When the rest of Australia became aware of the disaster, relief funding efforts began. As evacuations proceeded by road the towns of Katherine, Tennant Creek and Adelaide River provided supplies while Alice Springs had raised over $100,000 in the space of 24 hours. Far away in Melbourne at the Boxing Day Test Cricket Match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, buckets were taken around the perimeter of the ground to collect cash donations - carried by members of both the Australian and English cricket teams. Governments of other states gave Darwin residents priority access to public housing.

Songwriter Bill Cate penned the song "Santa never made it into Darwin" in early 1975 and with his partner Bill Robertson (known as Bill and Boyd) recorded it with sales also being added to the relief fund. The song reached number 2 on the national Australian music charts and in early 1976 was awarded song of the year at what is now known as the Golden Guitar Awards.

The city was rebuilt through federal funding, this time to building standards that recognised the threat of cyclones. Up until Christmas Day, 1974, the population of Darwin had become blase about cyclones and Tracy taught them a lesson. There were strong signs of recovery by May 1975. Before Tracy the population was only over 40,000. It has since passed 100,000.

Tracy is the most compact and yet most destructive tropical storm in world history. Only one classified tropical storm has been smaller but caused nowhere near as much damage (Trpoical Storm Marco in 2008).

## *Opinion*

* I barely remember the news itself at the time, but I sure as heck remember the Bill and Boyd song. As I created this article I downloaded the song as a reminder. Cairns was lauded big time for his initial efforts - it was a shame that his political career ended later in 1975 even though he did do the wrong thing. The Northern Territory Football League season was abandoned although a short substitute season was managed early in 1975 creating a recess period for the league in the process. That is the first and only time a cyclone has caused that. The Nguilla league on the Tiwi Islands did manage to finish their season but I think that was because the islands weren't as hard hit. A truly sad day in Australian history. **TLPG** 12:32, 11 February 2022 (UTC)