Cyclone Tracy 24th and 25th December 1974 by Murray Brunsgard 2024
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Just a week or two before Tracy, there had been another cyclone but eventually it passed to the north and had very little effect, so when warnings were sounded for the approach of Cyclone Tracy we were quite indifferent, very little concern was given, I mean after all, it was Christmas Eve, we all had much higher priorities, Darwin was in party mode, what could possibly go wrong and crying wolf like last time was not going to change that.
My girlfriend and I had spent some quality time at my home that Christmas Eve, she was starting her shift at Darwin Hospital at midnight. It was already windy and wooly with continuous rain as we drove down Bagot Road about 11:30. She arrived early to start her shift and left me to drive home to Lee Point Road. There were still parties raging on, but by the time Bagot Road arrived, the rain was solid, the wind was more than hair raising. Trees and power lines already lay across the road meaning a zig zag between mounting footpath and median strip, by this time I was hunched forward crawling along barely able to see much ahead of the bull bar. Once home, I parked next to the steps of the high set house but it was already blowing too hard for me to use safely use that front entrance, so the laundry entrance steps were good but still had to hold the hand rail to avoid being blown off. No power so tried to light a candle but even in the house, it just blew out. Nothing to do but go to bed but the bed was literally jumping up and down and the external walls were flexing. In a cyclone best advice is to open the windows (in this case louvres) on the lee side to equalize the pressure differential in the house. Great in theory but,….they immediately and forcefully slammed shut, so great was the air pressure differential. Outside was pitch black, occasionally there were showers of sparks, immediate thought it was power lines, but during flashes of lightning there were flying sheets of roofing iron, each time they hit the ground, showers of sparks exploded, travelling horizontal as was the rain. It was totally surreal. Stark reality hit – time to vacate the house. I went to the bedroom to dress, but in the dark deafening violence it was hopeless. Half dressed I made a mad dash to shelter in the car, but now the passage door had jammed closed, only by putting my back to the wall and pushing with my legs did a gap open enough to squeeze through. Once again surreal, shock, awe – there was no house, half of it had just disappeared, only during the flash of lightning were just the trunks of trees, stripped bare, to be seen across the other side of Lee Point Road. I raced to the steps that led down to the car, having to hold on both hands to the railing, threw myself into a fetal ball on the passenger floor lucky to have survived so far and knowing I was about to die. The whole car was violently rock and rolling when suddenly the car door flew open and I was blown out which left me hanging upside down directly facing a power line inches from my face, with my calves still in the car bent back under my thighs and my weight pinning me into position. It took a few frantic seconds to realize the power line was dead, then a lot of jiggling to be able to roll over, drop to the ground and immediately grovel back onto the floor of the car.
I need to explain at this point, the car was a Nissan ute 4WD with only a canvas cover directly behind the front seats, there were no rear seats. The whole vehicle had a massive roll bar over it from front bumper to rear bumper. This is what saved me.
Once curled up again on the floor, someone’s kitchen table flew straight into the open cab and smashed in half when it impaled itself on the floor shift gear stick knob, just inches above my head. Thank god for that because I was able to grab half a table and pull it over while I lay cowering beneath it.
Sometime during that eternity, I know not when, 2 sheets of roofing iron wrapped themselves around the back of the car seat and the remaining half of the house collapsed upon the whole vehicle. It was so violent and deafening I had no idea when or what had happened until after first light. The rain was still horizontal but the wind had abated some so extracted I myself from the tomb and scampered in under the floorboards of the house to shelter behind the block utility room, miraculously unscathed but convinced I must be the only survivor, there was only destruction to be seen and no signs of life.
The high set house next door still had its walls but no roof so as soon as the rain returned to vertical, I leapt their fence to investigate, convinced they were either dead or badly injured so smashed the glass door side and let myself in. No one, so returned to my place. All that remained of the high set house on the other side was a toppled wardrobe on top of the floorboards. The rain stopped, but no sign of life anywhere so jumped the fence to the ‘cupboard’ neighbour. As I approached the base of the stairs, a lone male appeared, obviously shell shocked and supporting his arm which had a broken scapula. As he descended the stairs he flicked his head back toward the wardrobe and said only, ‘they’re there’. Next thing 2 young children appeared from the wardrobe, they seemed in better condition but Mum, still in the cupboard, had a very nasty wound behind her ear and seemed badly concussed, was probably unconscious before my arrival. Held tightly in her arms was a baby so blue, I thought it was dead. Saying nothing I helped her down the stairs. To my utter amazement, still in the Tardis was another couple and their 2 young children. They were the neighbours from over the back fence having fled their own home when it started to breakup.
The baby did survive.