stories

Cyclone Tracy revisited

an experience of city and town

In Darwin, recently, I met the lovely widow of the late Senator Bob Collins (whom I had also met before his death). Collins was a highly effective and principled bloke committed to the triumph of indigenous Australians even if that meant taking decisions that harmed his own political journey. Rosemary is a traditional Tiwi Islands woman and she graciously took a group of us to historic locations in Darwin. One location we visited was the site of the form Aboriginal Inland Mission, which was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
 
The thing about Tracy was its destructive force. It flattened Darwin: 'Queenslander' style homes stripped to their stilts pushed to the ground, anything that was once straight now bent and twisted, streets carpeted with roofing iron and debris. One of the casualties of the cyclone was a children's home set up in honour of Retta Dixon who established the Aboriginal Inland Mission. Apparently, the children's home was severely damaged but managed to remain in operation until it closed in 1980.
 
It was a poignant visit as Rosemary explained the significance of the home and the lives of the children who passed through it before and after the cyclone. Experiencing an Aussie cyclone, as rare as it is, would be more than a little bit worrying for anyone of any age. It must have been terrifying for the children who lived through it. I wonder where they are now and what they remember of the time when Cyclone Tracy blasted through and trashed the community around them.
 
(see the 1975 TV newsreel footage of the Cyclone's aftermath)

 
Thanks to
Doug Kirkpatrick
from Melbourne
on 24/11/2008

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